Sukanya vs PPF Calculator 2026 on a Matched Timeline

For the current quarter of FY 2026-27, Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana carries an interest rate of 8.2% per annum, compounded annually and credited on 31 March each year. Public Provident Fund carries 7.1% per annum, also compounded annually.

Both rates are reviewed and notified quarterly by the Ministry of Finance. Unlike a fixed deposit where your rate is locked at opening, SSY and PPF apply the notified rate for each quarter to your balance during that quarter, so the effective rate over the full tenure reflects the sequence of quarterly rates. Between 2015 and 2026, SSY has ranged from 9.2% down to 7.6% and currently sits at 8.2%, while PPF has been more stable around 7.1%.

This is a defining feature of Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana. You are required to make deposits only for the first 15 years from the date of opening the account.

After that, no further deposits are needed or allowed, but the account remains active and continues to earn interest at the prevailing SSY rate until it matures at 21 years from opening. This creates a 6-year silent-growth phase where your accumulated corpus compounds without any additional investment. This phase is one of the most powerful and least understood aspects of SSY, because it can add a very substantial amount to the final corpus, purely through compounding on the balance built during the deposit years.

No, and this is the most common mistake in SSY-vs-PPF comparisons. SSY has 21 years to compound while PPF matures at 15 years, so of course SSY’s corpus is larger; it has had 6 extra years of growth. A fair comparison must align the horizons. The honest way is to extend PPF to 21 years to match SSY.

Since PPF can be extended in 5-year blocks beyond its initial 15-year term, you can extend it for 6 more years. If you extend PPF without fresh deposits (matching SSY, which also stops deposits at year 15), you let the accumulated PPF corpus compound at 7.1% for the additional years. On this matched basis, SSY still wins because of its higher rate, but the margin is much smaller than the naive 21-vs-15 comparison suggests. This calculator does the matched comparison for you.

Yes, in raw corpus terms, if you extend PPF with fresh contributions for the full 21 years. In that case you make 21 years of deposits into PPF versus only 15 years into SSY, so you are putting substantially more money into PPF. Six additional years of Rs 1.5 lakh deposits (Rs 9 lakh more principal) can outweigh SSY’s 1.1 percentage point rate advantage, letting PPF pull marginally ahead on the final corpus.

However, this is not a like-for-like comparison because you are investing more in PPF. On equal deposits over the same 15 years and a matched 21-year horizon, SSY wins. The choice depends on whether you can and want to keep depositing into PPF for the full 21 years, or prefer SSY’s structure of front-loaded deposits followed by silent growth.

Yes, both enjoy EEE (Exempt-Exempt-Exempt) tax status, which is the most favourable treatment available. The deposits qualify for deduction under Section 80C up to Rs 1.5 lakh per year (under the old tax regime), the interest earned each year is completely tax-free, and the maturity amount is entirely tax-free.

This triple exemption makes both schemes exceptionally tax-efficient for long-term goals. It is worth emphasising that the tax-free status of interest and maturity applies under both the old and new tax regimes. Only the upfront 80C deduction on deposits is lost if you opt for the new regime; the growth and the final payout remain tax-free regardless of which regime you choose.

No. The Section 80C deduction is not available under the new tax regime (Section 115BAC). If you have opted for the new regime, your SSY and PPF contributions will not reduce your taxable income, because the new regime disallows most deductions including 80C in exchange for lower slab rates.

This is an important consideration in 2026, since a large and growing share of taxpayers have moved to the new regime. However, the interest earned and the maturity amount from both SSY and PPF remain fully tax-free under both regimes. So if you are on the new regime, you should choose between SSY and PPF based on the return and horizon, not on the 80C benefit, which no longer applies to either.

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana can be opened only for a girl child who is below 10 years of age at the time of opening. The account is opened and operated by a parent or legal guardian until the girl turns 18, after which she can operate it herself. A family can open a maximum of two SSY accounts, one for each of up to two daughters.

In the case of twins or triplets as a second birth, an exception allows more than two accounts. The girl child must be a resident of India. If the girl becomes a non-resident or a citizen of another country after the account is opened, the account must be closed. This eligibility restriction is the fundamental difference from PPF, which is open to any resident individual regardless of age or gender.

Partial withdrawal from SSY is allowed once the girl child turns 18, up to 50% of the balance at the end of the preceding financial year, specifically for the purpose of her higher education. Documentary proof of admission is generally required.

Premature closure of the account before 21 years is permitted only in specific circumstances: the death of the account holder, or extreme compassionate grounds such as a life-threatening disease of the account holder, subject to conditions and approval. The account can also be closed if the girl marries after turning 18. Outside these situations, the funds are locked until maturity, which is precisely why SSY suits a dedicated long-term goal rather than a general savings need where you might want earlier access.

PPF offers a loan facility that SSY does not. You can take a loan against your PPF balance between the third and sixth financial years from opening the account. The loan amount can be up to 25% of the balance at the end of the second year preceding the loan application.

The interest rate on the PPF loan is 1% above the prevailing PPF rate, and the loan must be repaid within 36 months. This facility gives PPF a liquidity advantage over SSY, which has no loan option at all. From year 7 onward, PPF also allows partial withdrawals rather than loans. For families who value the ability to access funds in an emergency without breaking the investment, the PPF loan and earlier partial withdrawal facilities are a meaningful advantage.

Each scheme has its own Rs 1.5 lakh annual deposit limit, so you can technically deposit up to Rs 1.5 lakh in SSY and up to Rs 1.5 lakh in PPF in the same financial year, a total of Rs 3 lakh across the two. However, the Section 80C deduction is capped at Rs 1.5 lakh in total across all eligible instruments combined, so you can only claim a deduction on the first Rs 1.5 lakh of combined 80C investments.

The deposits beyond the 80C limit still earn the tax-free interest and enjoy tax-free maturity, so they are not wasted; they simply do not get the upfront deduction. Many high-saving families max out SSY at Rs 1.5 lakh for the higher rate and put additional long-term savings into PPF for the tax-free growth even without the extra 80C benefit.

If you deposit the maximum Rs 1.5 lakh every year for 15 years at the current 8.2% rate, you invest a total of Rs 22.5 lakh, and the account matures after 21 years at approximately Rs 71.82 lakh. Of this, roughly Rs 49.3 lakh is tax-free interest and Rs 22.5 lakh is your principal.

A striking feature of this outcome is that about Rs 27 lakh of the final corpus comes from the 6-year silent-growth phase after deposits stop, when the accumulated balance simply compounds at 8.2% with no further contribution. This illustrates the power of the long compounding horizon and is why financial planners recommend opening SSY as early as possible in the daughter’s life to capture the maximum number of compounding years.

Yes, PPF can be extended indefinitely in blocks of 5 years after the initial 15-year maturity. You have two options at each extension. You can extend with fresh contributions, continuing to deposit up to Rs 1.5 lakh a year and earning interest on the growing balance.

Or you can extend without fresh contributions, in which case you make no further deposits but the existing balance continues to earn PPF interest. Both extension options keep the EEE tax-free status intact. The extension is what allows PPF to be matched against SSY’s 21-year horizon in a fair comparison. To extend with contributions, you must submit a form within one year of maturity; if you do nothing, the account is automatically treated as extended without contributions.

For a dedicated daughter’s education or marriage corpus with a genuine long-term horizon, SSY is generally the better choice. Its 8.2% rate is 110 basis points higher than PPF’s 7.1%, and compounded over 21 years this rate advantage produces a materially larger corpus on the same deposits.

The forced long horizon, which some see as a limitation, is actually a benefit for this specific goal because it prevents premature spending and captures the full silent-growth phase. The main scenario where PPF might be preferred for this specific goal is if you anticipate needing partial access to the funds before the daughter turns 18, or if you want the loan facility that PPF offers, or if you are not certain the girl child eligibility conditions will continue to hold in your case. For most families with a young daughter and a clear 21-year goal, SSY wins.

If you fail to deposit the minimum amount of Rs 250 in any financial year, the SSY account is treated as a defaulted account. You can regularise it by paying a penalty of Rs 50 for each defaulted year along with the minimum deposit of Rs 250 for each such year.

If the account is not regularised, it continues to earn interest at the SSY rate on the existing balance until maturity, but you lose the ability to make it a fully compliant account. It is therefore advisable to deposit at least the minimum Rs 250 each year to keep the account active and in good standing. Setting up an automatic transfer or a standing instruction helps avoid accidental defaults, especially in the later deposit years when the corpus is large and the account is easy to forget.

Both SSY and PPF are among the safest investment instruments available to Indian residents. They are backed by the sovereign guarantee of the Government of India, which means the government guarantees both the principal and the interest. There is no market risk, no credit risk, and no possibility of default.

This makes them ideal for the risk-free portion of a long-term portfolio, particularly for goals like a child’s education where capital protection is paramount. The only meaningful risks are inflation risk, since the real return after inflation is modest, and the opportunity cost of not investing in higher-return but riskier assets like equity mutual funds. For the guaranteed, tax-free, capital-protected portion of a long-term savings plan, both schemes are excellent, with SSY offering the higher rate for eligible girl-child savers.

The 8th Pay Commission concerns the pay and pension of central government employees and does not directly change the SSY or PPF interest rates, which are set separately through the quarterly small savings rate review by the Ministry of Finance. However, small savings rates and government bond yields tend to move together over time, so a broader interest rate environment that affects government finances can indirectly influence future SSY and PPF rate revisions.

There is no announced change to SSY or PPF eligibility, deposit limits, or tax treatment linked to the 8th Pay Commission. Both schemes continue under their existing rules, and the rates applicable to your account for any quarter are whatever the Ministry of Finance notifies for that quarter. For planning purposes, using the current 8.2% and 7.1% rates is reasonable, while recognising that both may be revised up or down in future quarters.