Children's' Day 2019: On 14th November 2019, when the nation would be celebrating the birth anniversary of its first Prime Minister Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru, parents must stop shirking their responsibility and make some solid investment that ensure their children become rich when they grow up. An added benefit is that it also allows parents to take the benefit of EEE (Exempt, Exempt and Exempt) feature and that means income tax exemption on investment, income tax exemption on the interest accrued on the investment and income tax exemption on the maturity amount at the time of withdrawal. This is surely like icing on the cake for the parents. According to the tax and investment experts, people know about the Public Provident Fund or PPF and they do most of their investment in that. Experts are of the opinion that there is a Minor PPF Account option also that provides same benefits but very few people invest in that. This is bad news for children of these parents!

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Speaking on the PPF Minor Account and its benefits, Manikaran Singhal, a SEBI registered tax and investment expert said, "PPF Minor Account can be opened with Rs 100 investment at any of the post offices or an authorised bank's branches. The investor will have all income tax exemption luxuries that he or she would be enjoying in own PPF account. The PPF Minor Account investor will get income tax exemption under 80C, all PPF Account interest and its maturity amount after PPF withdrawal will be 100 per cent income tax exempted."

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On how a PPF Minor Account can be used to create funds for higher studies of children, Jitendra Solanki, a SEBI registered tax and investment expert said, "One can open PPF Minor Account in the name of one's dependent child. The PPF Minor Account will also have a maturity period of 15 years and if the investor decides to extend the PPF Minor Account, he or she will have to submit Form-H for extending the PPF Minor Account for the next 5 years within one year of the  PPF maturity period of 15 years. He or she can do that again after the 20 years of PPF Minor Account for the next five years." Solanki said that on PPF account current interest rate is 7.9 per cent but for long-term like, 25 years, one can assume 8 per cent return on one's PPF Minor Account.

Hence, assuming 8 per cent return on PPF Minor Account for 25 years, according to the PPF Calculator, the maturity amount that an investor would get is Rs 1,18,43,162 or Rs 1.8 crore. This amount may not be much to attain financial freedom after 25 years for your child but it would definitely work as better seed capital for his or her financial freedom after the next 20-25 years when he or she would start investing for a comfortable retirement and fulfilling other financial goals.