Today I opened my PPF (Public Provident Fund) account in State Bank of India and thanks to the as usual helpless attitude of SBI employees, I had to figure out a lot of things myself, so thought of sharing them, so that you wouldn’t have to struggle as much as me.
Here is what you would need to open your PPF account in SBI:
- 3 forms from your local SBI branch, if you are an existing customer. These are; Public Provident Fund Form, Nomination Form for PPF and a form for existing customers of SBI (sort of like the Part-II of this form).
- Self attested photo copy of PAN card and a copy of either driving license, passport, voters id card etc.
- 2 witness to sign your nomination form (they just need to sign it, there is no need for them to be present at the bank).
- 2 passport sized photographs of yourself.
- Your initial contribution to the PPF account in cash (don’t waste cheque, they are least interested in receiving them).
- PPF contribution submission form.
- Truck load of patience.
- Couple of hours of your life (if it isn’t too crowded!)
Once you have all this and have properly filled the form, it is time to go to your nearest SBI branch (preferably early in the morning). Once there, you will likely have to submit the form first to the guy makes FDR etc. (at least in our branch’s case), who after checking and entering them in to the system, will hand it back to you, so that you can give them to the assistant branch manager.
Now, based on your form filling skills and the general attitude of the assistant branch manager, it can take anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour for him to go through your form, get everything up to his satisfaction and sign and stamp the form.
Now you will have to take the form back to the guy you initially showed the form to (FDR guy in our case) and he will enter it into the system. Once done, he will hand you back the forms, which you will again have to take back to the assistant bank manager!
Now the Assistant Bank Manager will issue you your PPF Account Number. You will have to enter that along with other necessary details in the PPF contribution form and take the PPF contribution form and your cash to the cash deposit window and deposit the amount into your newly opened account.
The same window (if you are lucky enough that the printer is working) will also issue you your PPF passbook, which is essentially your normal SBI account passbook and you can be on your way.
Frankly speaking, if everything goes smoothly and people at the bank are helpful and it isn’t crowded, the whole process shouldn’t take more than an hour, in fact slightly less. But fact of the matter is, this is rarely a case in the nationalized banks and with people more interested in raising objections than working, it will likely take you around couple of hours or more, so plan your visit to the bank accordingly.
18 Comments
I face the same thing almost and backed out of opening PPF account.
Amazing piece of information you have shared.
Thanks Din, glad you found it useful.
It’s true that these ‘sarkari daftar’ still foind joy in delaying the otherwise smooth process. Fortunately, I didn’t faced any hiccups while opening my PPF account with SBH few years back. But recently I had to go to Delhi Passport Office for some updaion in mine, and man… it was worth being a Osama! Grrr….
They kept pushing me from one counter to the other, and despite of all complete documents, they stopped the issue of my renewed passport for some ‘personal inspection of documents’. ALthough there was no instance of any corruption but the normal process became cumbersome and I had to stand in queues in 44 degrees hot weather for 3-4 hours for 3 days. And on 4th day I had to spend all my day (Yes, the whole day with 43degrees weather!) just to collect the passport!
This is simply unacceptable, but kya karein… sehna padta hai!
True, people seem so concerned about delaying things, that they will go out of their way to do that, even though they aren’t going to gain any thing monetarily, by doing so!
Nice article YS. I am planning to open a NPS (New Pension Scheme) with SBI. How different it is from PPF, do u have any idea?
Thanks Rahul, as far as I know, NPS is a good idea, only if you are planing to work till the age of 60 and need a pension thereafter, since there are restriction on withdrawing the amount before that age. Also, it gives a regular pension. While in case of PPF, you need to be invested for minimum of 15 years and after that, you can either withdraw the amount or extend the tenure. Also the amount you get is lump sum, instead of regular pension.
In PPF your money is largely invested in government securities, while in case of NPS, you have to decide your risk profile and based on that, your money is invested and you get the returns.
I want to open my PPF account in SBI, so you send full information about its that what are the requirments for opening my account.
It is already given above, for rest, contact your local branch.
Hi yogesh i have a question i want to open a ppf account i stay on rent so address proof can i submitt the agreement of the house plz reply…
Samira, it ought to be enough. But then again, government banks can be fussy at times, so best check with the local branch.
I opened a PPF account at SBI just last week. I don’t know which SBI branch you visited, but my experience was hassle free. It took exactly 20 mins to open the account and get the pass book. I made the first deposit by cheque. My SBI account is maintained at the same branch, maybe that helped, but I still had to submit address proofs. I’ve been banking with the same SBI branch for over 20 years now (have had an account there since I was 12) and I can say that they have improved by leaps and bounds and in terms of service are on par with at least HDFC (I have an account there too) and SBI is much, much, much better than Citibank (used to have an account there for 5 years).
Amit I also bank with SBI and have been using them for past 5-6 years.
Things are improving, but not all that much. Though this post was written 2 years ago, so maybe they have somewhat streamlined the process or maybe you were just lucky to have a good branch (mine is good as well, especially in comparison to another branch in Delhi, I had the displeasure of visiting couple of times).
YOU ARE ABSOLUTE TRUE I EXPERIENCED LOT OF TROUBLE AND DECIDED NOT TO OPEN PPF ACCOUNT WITH SBI.
Sir,
If I invest 50000.00 per year how much I will get after 15 years?
At 7% interest you will get Rs.1542000.
Dashrath, it depends on various factors eg. how much you are depositing each month or whether you are depositing it in one go and how much the interest rate stays during the course of the year.
Assuming you are depositing Rs. 4166.66 a month for 15 years and interest rate stays at 8.7%, then you should get Rs. 15,00,598 (Rs. 750,599.2 interest) at the end of the term.
Hi Mr. Sarkar, I already have a ppf account and want to open a ppf account for my new born to assist him in future. Since he is only few months old, can i open a account on his name or will they allow me to do some kind of nomination & open me another ppf account, if its not possible to do so for child.
Your calculator is allowing to see us intrest generated in 1 yr, do you have something which can give us cumulative, say for 15 to 20 yrs.
Also one last thing, I dont deposit in ppf monthly, but whenever I have finances do it in bulk like this year may paid 68k & 32k this month, so how to calculate for that & is there anything wrong in posting bulk rather than monthly.
Varun
Varun, I believe they should allow you to do that, provided you have his birth certificate and some other form of identity proof to complete account opening formalities. It would be a good idea to get in touch with your bank for clarification on this, since account opening formalities for children differ slightly.
Calculating interest rate for 15-20 years isn’t possible, since interest rate keeps changing each year, however if you want to make a guess over that, you can try following calculator http://www.etechplanet.com/tools/rd-interest-calculator.aspx. Make sure to choose yearly compounding.
There is no issue in depositing lump sump amount. In my PPF calculator, you just need to enter whatever amount you have deposited in whichever month, and it will make calculation accordingly i.e. you can input 68,000 in December and keep other months blank.