Zenith Wealth

Which tax saver actually suits you?

All three give you the same deduction. What they do not share is when you get the money back, how much of it is yours to take, and whether the figure can fall on the way. Those differences are larger than the returns.

Rules checked 20 August 2026

Most you could actually take out
₹1,13,18,805
from ELSS

Comparing these on their maturity value is the mistake. They are taxed differently at exit, and NPS is not fully payable at all: 40% of it has to buy an annuity. What matters is what reaches your hand and when you are allowed to have it.

OptionLocked forAt maturityTax at exitIn your handYou also get
ELSS3 years per instalment₹1.25 Cr₹11.71 L₹1.13 CrNothing further
PPF15 years₹66.58 LNil₹66.58 LNothing further
NPS Tier IUntil 60₹1.09 CrNil₹65.52 L₹21,839 a month, taxed as income
ELSS
Equity: 12.5% on gains above ₹1.25 lakh a year. Shortest lock-in of the three.
PPF
Exempt at contribution, accrual and maturity. Rate reset quarterly, currently 7.1%.
NPS Tier I
Lump sum is 60% and tax free. The other 40% must buy an annuity whose income is taxed at slab.

The table is in a fixed order by lock-in length and is never sorted by outcome. All three qualify under Section 123 of the Income-tax Act 2025, formerly Section 80C, within the shared ₹1.5 lakh limit, under the old regime only. NPS carries an additional ₹50,000 under Section 124(3), formerly Section 80CCD(1B).

Your numbers

The Section 123 limit is ₹1.5 lakh across everything you claim

Currently 7.1%, reset quarterly

Depends on the equity share you choose, capped at 75%

Your income tax slab

At 30%, filling the ₹1.5 lakh limit saves ₹45,000 of tax in the year you claim it, whichever of the three you choose.

What the table cannot weigh

One of these can fall and two cannot
ELSS and NPS are market-linked, so their figures are assumptions. PPF pays a rate set by the government each quarter and its balance cannot fall. Putting all three in one table makes them look like the same kind of number, and they are not.
The lock-ins are very different
ELSS releases each instalment after three years. PPF locks for fifteen, with partial withdrawal from the seventh. NPS locks until 60 and then only pays 60% as a lump sum. Money you might need is not the same asset as money you cannot touch.
NPS has an extra ₹50,000 the others do not
Under Section 124(3), formerly 80CCD(1B), over and above the shared ₹1.5 lakh. For someone in the old regime who has already filled the limit, that is the only straightforward way to deduct more.
None of it applies under the new regime
Section 123 is available under the old regime only, and the new regime is the default. Settle which regime you are in before choosing between these, because in the new one the tax argument for all three disappears and only the investment merits remain.

Past performance may or may not be sustained in future and is not a guarantee of any future returns. The rate is capped at 13% p.a., being the mean of 10-year rolling returns of the Nifty 50 between 1 June 2013 and 30 May 2023 (12.93%), the basis AMFI prescribes for illustrations.

The 13% ceiling

Why this calculator stops at 13%

Many Indian return calculators let you type 20%, and some go to 30%. This one stops at 13%, which is roughly what the market has actually delivered over a decade.

What a decade actually returned

Nifty 50
12.93%
Sensex
12.64%
Gold, in rupees
9.34%
10-year G-Sec
7.20%

Mean of every 10-year rolling return between 1 June 2013 and 30 May 2023. Source: AMFI Best Practices Guidelines Circular 109/2023-24 of 1 November 2023, which sets these as the rates a mutual fund illustration in India may use. Nifty 50 at 12.93% is the highest of them, which is where the 13% ceiling comes from.

What a higher number would have shown you

Your settings above, ₹12,500 a month for 20 years, at three different assumptions.

At 12.0%, this page
₹1.25 Cr
At 20%, elsewhere
₹3.95 Cr
3.2× this page
At 30%, elsewhere
₹19.15 Cr
15.3× this page

The gap between those figures is not a return. It is an assumption.

12.93% is the average of every ten-year stretch in that period. Some stretches were better and several were a great deal worse, and you get one of them rather than the average of all of them. So a calculator set to 20% is not being optimistic. It is quietly moving the goalposts, because a higher assumed rate makes the monthly amount you need look smaller than it is. That is the one error in this arithmetic that costs you money, and it only shows up twenty years later, when the corpus is short.

AMFI sets this ceiling for every mutual fund illustration in India. It is also the number we would have picked.

How this is calculated

The same annual amount goes into each. ELSS and NPS compound monthly at the rate you assume; PPF compounds annually at the published rate, which is how the scheme actually works.

Then each is taken to its exit, which is where they separate. ELSS gains above ₹1.25 lakh a year are taxed at 12.5%. PPF is exempt entirely. NPS pays 60% as a tax-free lump sum and requires the other 40% to buy an annuity, whose income is then taxed at slab in every year you receive it.

The column that matters is therefore “in your hand” rather than “at maturity”. Ranking on the maturity value puts NPS second; ranking on what you can take puts it third, behind a PPF pot barely half its size.

What this cannot tell you

Two of these are assumptions and one is a published rate. The ELSS and NPS figures depend on returns nobody can promise and their balances can fall. PPF pays what the government sets each quarter and cannot fall. The table puts them in adjacent columns and that comparison is not like for like.

The PPF rate is projected flat for the whole term. It is reset every quarter and has ranged widely over the decades, so a twenty-year projection at 7.1% is an illustration, not a forecast.

The NPS annuity rate is the least knowable number here and it is doing a lot of work. It depends on what annuity providers offer in the year you retire, possibly decades away.

It does not model the extra ₹50,000 NPS deduction, partial withdrawals from any of the three, or the ELSS three-year lock-in applying per instalment rather than to the whole holding.

Which of the three gives the most money at the end?

On the defaults, ₹1.5 lakh a year for twenty years: ELSS reaches ₹1.25 crore and hands you ₹1.13 crore after tax. NPS reaches ₹1.09 crore and hands you ₹65.52 lakh. PPF reaches ₹66.58 lakh and hands you all of it.

The result worth noticing is that NPS builds a corpus 64% larger than PPF and pays out slightly less in hand, because 40% of it is compulsorily converted into an annuity. That annuity is worth something, roughly ₹21,839 a month, and it is not money you can take.

Why does NPS look worse than its corpus suggests?

Because the corpus is not the payout. At normal exit, at least 40% must buy an annuity and only 60% is available as a lump sum. Every NPS calculator in the market shows the corpus, which is the one figure the saver never receives. The annuity is not worthless, it is longevity insurance and it keeps paying however long you live, but it is a different kind of asset from a lump sum and comparing them as though they were the same overstates NPS considerably.

What are the lock-ins?

ELSS: three years, and per instalment, so a SIP into one releases units on a rolling basis. It is by far the shortest lock-in among Section 123 options. PPF: fifteen years, with partial withdrawal from the seventh and extension in five-year blocks after that. NPS: until 60, with narrow exceptions and a worse annuity requirement if you exit early. Money that might be needed belongs in the first, not the third.

Which is safest?

PPF, without qualification. It carries a government-set rate, a sovereign backing, and a balance that cannot fall. ELSS is an equity fund and can drop 30% in a bad year. NPS holds a mix you choose, with equity capped at 75%, so it sits between the two. If the question is which one you can rely on being there, the ranking reverses the return table completely.

Does NPS have a deduction the others do not?

Yes, and it is the strongest argument for it. An additional ₹50,000 is available under Section 124(3) of the Income-tax Act 2025, formerly Section 80CCD(1B), over and above the shared ₹1.5 lakh limit. For someone in the old regime who has already filled Section 123 with EPF and insurance, that is the only straightforward route to a further deduction. An employer contribution to NPS is separately deductible again and survives under the new regime, which makes it the more valuable channel now.

Is ELSS still worth using?

Where you want equity exposure and are in the old regime, the three-year lock-in is the shortest of any Section 123 option and the tax on exit is the mildest available on equity. The honest caveat is that if you are in the new regime, an ELSS has no advantage whatsoever over an ordinary equity fund with the same mandate and no lock-in. The lock-in is the price of a deduction you are not claiming.

Can I use more than one?

Yes, and most people should, because they answer different questions. The ₹1.5 lakh limit is shared, so splitting it means filling it across several rather than adding to it. A common shape is EPF taking part of the limit automatically, PPF taking a portion as the money that cannot fall, and ELSS taking the rest as the growth component, with NPS on top for its extra ₹50,000.

Does any of this apply under the new tax regime?

The deductions do not. Section 123 and the additional NPS deduction are old-regime only, so under the new regime the tax case for all three disappears and only their investment merits remain. That matters because the new regime is the default and the majority of salaried taxpayers are now in it. The regime comparison settles which one you are in, and it is genuinely the first question.

Questions people ask about this

Over long periods equity has returned considerably more, and ELSS has a three-year lock-in against PPF's fifteen. PPF cannot fall in value and is tax free at every stage. They answer different questions, and most portfolios have room for both.

Related calculators

Talk to the desk

These answer different questions, which is why the table does not rank them.

How much of your money should be somewhere it cannot fall, and how much you can afford to lock until 60, are questions about your situation rather than about the three products. Bring your figures and we will work through it.

Talk to a human
Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks; read all scheme-related documents carefully. Past performance does not guarantee future returns.

Calculator outputs are indicative projections on assumptions you select, not assurances, and not a projection of the performance of any scheme. Tax rules are those in force for FY 2026-27 under the Income-tax Act, 2025, checked on 20 August 2026.

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Mutual Fund investments are subject to market risks; read all scheme-related documents carefully. Past performance does not guarantee future returns. Calculator outputs are indicative projections, not assurances. Zenith Wealth is a distributor and is not registered with SEBI as an Investment Adviser or Portfolio Manager.