PPF accounts will mature in 15 years but need not be closed immediately. A matured account will keep earning interest if there is any balance. The following rules govern PPF extension: Option 1 is to Withdraw: You can withdraw the entire amount and close the account. To invest further in PPF in the future, you need to create a new PPF account which restarts the 15-year clock. Therefore even if you need the money, you should not close the account immediately. If you do not want to withdraw, you can extend the account and unlimited extensions are allowed in blocks of 5 years. Option 2 is to Extend PPF without fresh investments: if you did not put in an extension request on time, i.e. within a year of the maturity date, then this option gets activated automatically. Partial withdrawals, up to the full balance of the account, are allowed once a financial year (Apr to Mar) but you cannot invest any new money. Investors should explicitly provide an instruction to the bank or post-office to avoid this situation Option 3 is to Extend with fresh investments: if you wish, you can invest up to ₹1.5L/year after extension. 80C tax deduction is allowed on this investment. Up to 60% of the corpus can be withdrawn when you decide to extend for each five-year extension with fresh investments once every block of five years.