Public Provident Fund (PPF) interest rate for October-December 2026 announced; check all details

A notification, issued by the Department of Economic Affairs of the ministry, extended the freeze on small savings interest rates to the 10th consecutive quarter.

For the PPF scheme particularly, the decision to keep the rate unchanged stretches a much longer streak. The PPF rate has now stood at 7.1% for 26 straight quarters, ever since it was cut from 7.9% in April 2020.

Full small savings schemes’ interest rate card for the quarter starting October 1, 2026

PPF scheme details and what savers earn

The PPF account matures after 15 years, allowing a minimum yearly deposit of ₹500 and a maximum of ₹1.5 lakh. Interest is compounded annually. The scheme enjoys EEE status — deposit, interest and maturity proceeds are all exempt from income tax.

Please note the deposit up to ₹1.5 lakh a year is tax-free under Section 80C but you can benefit from it only under the old tax regime.

At 7.1%, a saver putting in the full ₹1.5 lakh every year can build roughly ₹40.7 lakh over 15 years. On every ₹10,000 of balance, the account earns about ₹710 a year, tax-free. For an investor in the 30% tax bracket, that is equivalent to nearly 10.1% from a taxable instrument.

However, PPF interest rate declared for a quarter applies to the entire outstanding balance. So, Wednesday's 7.1% will apply to every rupee in your PPF account for the next three months.

Small savings rates are reset every quarter under a formula recommended by the Shyamala Gopinath Committee in 2011. Each scheme is benchmarked to the average secondary-market yield on a government security of matching maturity, plus a spread.

For the PPF, the benchmark is the 10-year G-sec with a 25-basis-point spread. Over the July-September reference quarter, the 10-year yield averaged roughly 6.85-6.9%, which computes to a formula-implied PPF rate of about 7.1%, almost exactly what the scheme pays. The freeze in rate for the last 25 quarters, therefore, needed no change this time.