Senior citizens' woes
Please allow me to begin by asking " Who cares for the HAS BEENS? Yes, today's 'Has Beens' were yesterday's major players keeping the country's wheels of economy and government moving. Come tomorrow, today's young Turks will become tomorrow's 'Has Beens' and so on as the wheel of time turns. The common factor, however, in both stages of one's life is that he is not relieved from the duty of paying taxes till he is stowed in. Thereby, he continues to retain the life membership of the taxpayers' club.
The painful shock comes when crossing over the fence from an active players' role he joins the retirees and suddenly realises that there is no pay check coming at the end of the month. This one eighty degrees change in circumstances throws him completely out of gear and he has to struggle to make ends meet with his meagre investment earnings. Thankfully, while pension has been kept outside the orbit of taxation, he is still exposed to the other levies and surcharges imposed by the government on his savings.
Taking the cue, not from the developed countries but looking across borders to our neighbours we understand that the poor pensioners and widows have been given due recognition of their contribution during their working life and have been gracefully rewarded with certain concessions.
Pray, our new government and the finance minister in particular, take mercy and look into this grey area and be kind enough to consider the following exemptions to redress the pensioners' pains and widows' woes in the upcoming new budget.
1. Exemption of surcharge levied on interest earned on savings account, fixed deposit account and Sanchayapatra.
2. Subsidized travel rates on national air, rail, road and water transport.
3. Reduced rates on government medical outfits.
4. Reduced rates on entertainment tickets and the like.
National ID cards and TINs may be used as proof of identification.
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