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Budget 2002 and the senior citizen
BUDGET 2002 is round the corner. What relief, if any, will it bring to the senior citizen? Unlike corporates, which have two strong chambers of commerce in ASSOCHAM and FICCI to lobby for them and extract tax concessions, the millions of senior citizens in the country do not have any spokesperson to air their grievances before the government. Through this article, therefore, I earnestly request the Finance Minister to spare a thought for this much harassed category of citizens and give them the reliefs outlined herein. Let the Minister not forget that senior citizens have borne with fortitude, and continue to bear, the brunt of the stock market scams, NBFC failures, co-op. bank frauds and misdemeanours of hordes of plantation companies that have wrecked the economy in the recent past. In the present
(1) Reduce the age criterion for the senior citizen, in the Income Tax Act, from 65 to 60 years. The retirement age in most PSUs and other organisations ranges from 55 to 60. Recently Air India reduced the age of superannuation to 58. The RBI considers persons aged 60 and above as `senior citizens'. The Indian Railways also considers women aged 60 and above as `senior citizens' (it is hoped the Railway Minister will put an end to the discrimination against men in this regard in his forthcoming budget). It is, therefore, reasonable to amend the definition of `senior citizen', for tax purposes, to `any individual who has attained the age of 60 years'.
(2) A press note dated September 25, 1998 of the Ministry of Finance frees senior citizens, not engaged in any business or profession, from filing the mandatory tax return under the 1/6 Scheme on the basis of just ownership of a house or subscription to a telephone. This is laudable. Minister, please go a step further and exempt senior citizens, not engaged in any business or profession, ENTIRELY from the purview of the 1/6 Scheme. This class of senior citizens do not make any sizeable contribution to tax revenues. Why not then save them the botheration of filing the compulsory tax return and thereby save considerable paper work, nay a paper explosion, at the IT offices?
(3) No further reduction please in the current rates of interest on Post Office investment schemes. The monthly interest scheme (MIS), under which investments made in multiples of Rs. 6,000 yield simple interest at 9.5 per cent, is very popular amongst retirees. Please allow this as well as the other PO investment schemes to continue unchanged as they fulfil the twin objectives of liquidity and safety. Interest rates on the PO schemes should not be lowered just to protect bank deposits. Let the banks and the Post Office compete for business openly sans government protection.
(4) Increase the tax rebate for senior citizens under Section 88B to at least Rs. 30,000. Let them live and die in peace.
(5) The savings limit under Section 88, under various categories, needs to be clubbed together under one head and raised to at least Rs. 1,00,000. This will, in addition, be a measure of simplification welcomed wholeheartedly, by and large, by the tax paying fraternity.
T.V. RAMACHANDRAN
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