Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Mar 08, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Mar 08, 2005 |
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Opinion
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Letters A blow to senior citizens
The Budget has dealt a severe blow to senior citizens by drastically reducing the tax rebate by a measly Rs 5,000 and also taking away the benefits of standard deduction and Sec 80L. All this is done in the name of `simplification'! Till last year a Sr. Citizen with pension and interest income amounting to Rs 2,12,000 with exemption u/s 80L, standard deduction and tax rebate u/s 88B (for senior citizens) was paying a tax of only Rs 5,000. But now he/she will pay a tax of Rs 12,400! Is this fair treatment? The threshold limit should be raised to at least Rs 2,50,000 if there should be some additional relief. Otherwise, one fails to understand the logic for increasing the relief to senior citizens gradually to Rs 20,000 till last year and then withdrawing most of it with one stroke. This rebate is a crutch meant to allow senior citizens to fend for themselves and their medical treatment in their old age and one wonders why the Finance Minster wants to cruelly pull it off! Surely, there are other more feasible means of increasing revenue. A.V. Haridevan Bangalore
Letters to the editor and contributions can be sent by e-mail to: bleditor@thehindu.co.in
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