National Savings Certificate vs Public Provident Fund

2. While NSC requires one time investment, PPF requires regular investment.

3. NSC is the form of a certificate but PPF is in the form of an account and to keep it active, you’ve to make regular investment – a minimum amount of Rs 500 has to be deposited every year to keep the account active.

4. Once you invest in a NSC the interest rate gets locked-in i.e., can’t be changed subsequently, where as in case of PPF the returns are assured but not fixed. In other words, depending upon the interest rate scenario, government can move it either downward or upward, as the economic situation demands.However, as the interest to your PPF account gets credited every year, the change in interest rate is always prospective and not retrospective.

As regards the uncertainty associated with the PPF interest rate, we can observe that since 2003, there has not been any change in the PPF interest rates. Even if there is a change in near future, in my view, it can’t go beyond +/- 1%.