The Union Finance Minister has done a good thing in doing away with multiple ‘definitions' of ‘Senior Citizens' for the purpose of tax relief, rail travel and retirement from government service. Now, the age of a ‘senior citizen' has been made 60 years for all the above three purposes uniformly.

C. Ramamoorthy

Madurai

Inflation unaddressed

The analysis of the Union Budget in “Unjust, inequitable and morally wrong” provides a new perspective. He points out that the fiscal deficit should have been 5.8 per cent of GDP and not 5.1 per cent, as claimed by the Finance Minister. The fiscal deficit calculated based on inflation-adjusted GDP will do no good to the interest rates. Interest rates will still harden because of inflationary effects and will not soften due to the artificial reduction in fiscal deficit. The roadmap for fiscal deficit reduction to 3.5 per cent by fiscal 2013-14 is a challenge in this inflationary regime. With underestimated expenses, overestimated revenues and rising crude oil prices, the Budget has no direct remedy to reduce inflation.

S.Vaidhyasubramaniam

Thanjavur

Seniors' plight ignored

The Budget proposals for 2011-12 have largely ignored the plight of Senior Citizens (below 80 years old) who were hitherto given tax exemption limit of Rs 2,40,000 as compared to the general threshold limit of Rs 1,60,000 in the past. When the threshold limit is increased by Rs 20,000 to Rs 1,80,000 in the Budget for 2011-12, senior citizens falling in this category are allowed only a meagre increase in relief.

Most of the seniors are living on interest income from savings. Although interest rates on deposits have recently improved, it is well known that seniors (below 80 years) are also battered by inflation caused by declining interest rates and increase in cost of living as much as others. One hopes the Government will remove the disparity.

S.Vaidyanathan

Chennai

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