Even as the silver brigade has something to smile about, it's those who are on the verge of greying who can beam more widely. The Finance Minister has cut the qualifying age for senior citizens from 65 years to 60 years. The income-tax exemption limit for this category has been enhanced from Rs 2.4 lakh to Rs 2.5 lakh.

Also, a new category of Very Senior Citizens, 80 years and above, has been created, who would be eligible for a higher exemption limit of Rs 5 lakh.

Delhi-based chartered accountant, Mr Satyendra Jain, welcomes the move saying that it's high time India brought down the senior citizen age to 60. “When other countries have 60 as the senior citizens age, it's incomprehensible why India has been persisting with 65,” he says.

“This will make life easier for us as inflation has been killing us,” says 62-year old Mr Yogesh Mehta, who has recently retired from a private medical company.

Gerontologist Ms Amruta Lovekar too hails it as a positive development. “In Gerontology, we have three age groups – the young old, the middle old and the old old. It's positive that the old old category has been taken note of by the Finance Minister,” she says.

Mr Jain, on the other hand, feels the exemption to senior citizens exceeding 80 years will only benefit very few. “Given that our life expectancy figure is 70 years, I am not sure how many pensioners there are in the income bracket to benefit from this,” he says.

Also he fears that this might lead to mis-declarations – with people transferring income in the name of the ‘very old' to avail themselves of tax benefits.

According to estimates (The Greying of India by Rajagopal Dhar Chakraborti), the dependency ratio (the number of over-65 dependent on their children) is on the rise in India, is expected to zoom to 23 now from 10 in 2000.

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