PF Alert: If the subscribers have opened two or more Public Provident Fund (PPF) accounts on or after December 12, 2019, then it will be closed without any interest payment. And moreover, there will be no chance of a merger of such PPF accounts. In this regard, the Department of Economic Affairs at the Ministry of Finance has issued an Office Memorandum (OM), putting an end to confusion regarding the amalgamation of such PPF accounts. The OM has made it clear that any proposal to merge such PPF accounts won’t be entertained.

The Ministry of Finance’s Department of Economic Affairs (Budget Division) directed not to send any proposal for consideration of merging, i.e., an amalgamation of PPF Accounts formed under the PPF Rules 2019.

“In case any one of the PPF accounts or all the PPF accounts is/are proposed to be merged or amalgamated is/are opened on or after 12/12/2019 such account(s) shall be closed without any interest payment and no proposal should be sent to the Postal Directorate for amalgamation of such PPF Accounts,” the circular stated. 

According to the Public Provident Fund (PPF) Scheme guidelines, a subscriber cannot have more than one account. However, many people end up opening more than one PPF account.

As per the Public Provident Fund (PPF) Scheme rules, an individual cannot have more than one account. However, many people still inadvertently end up opening more than one PPF account; they would have opened PPF accounts with two different banks or with a post office and a bank as well.

Say, for example, if a person has opened a PPF account in January 2015 and another PPF account in January 2020, in such case, these accounts cannot be merged and the account opened in January 2020 will be closed without bearing any interest.

In another case, if one account is opened in 2015 and another in 2018 by the same person, these accounts can be merged by requesting for amalgamation.