FM Nirmala Sitharaman Gives Big Update On Charges For PPF Account Nomination

If you want to update the nominee in your public provident fund (PPF) account, it will attract no charges. In a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Sitharaman said, “Recently was informed that a fee was being levied by financial institutions for updating/modifying nominee details in PPF accounts”.

In light of this, a change in the fee has been made. The post further says, “Necessary changes are now made in the Government Savings Promotion General Rules 2018 via Gazette Notification 02/4/25 to remove any charges on the updation of nominees for PPF accounts”.

Nomination in account is a measure for a secure settlement of accounts. Recently, the four nominations were allowed in the bank accounts. The Banking Amendment Bill, 2025, was passed allowing deposits to nominate up to four persons as nominees in account for their account, as well as lockers and safety custody.

A PPF account holder can also make one or more nominees in the PPF account but not more than four individuals.

The gazette notification in this regard reads, “In the Government Savings Promotion General Rules, 2018, in Schedule II, under ‘Fee to be charged for services, the words and figures ‘(b) Cancellation or change of nomination – ₹50’ shall be deleted”.

The change has become effective from April 2, 2025, the date of the gazette notification.

A nomination is important for the settlement of a financial asset account, whether it is a bank account, PPF account, or a demat account. Note that nomination is not permanent and the accountholder can change it as many times as required. However, now it is convenient as the removal of charges, however nominal, will not be a constraint in changing the nominees, increasing or reducing the number of nominees, etc.

Nomination is an important feature that comes into use only in case of an accountholder’s death. The purpose of nomination in the financial assets account is to ease the settlement process.