INDIA: Case for More Benefits for Senior Citizens

KOLKATA (The Statesman), May 30, 2002: The undivided family in India has provided some sort of social insurance to elders and their dependents. Affluent countries like USA and Japan have proportionately more people in this category. To assuage their feelings and to respect their age, they are called senior citizens, notes Narayan Chandra Ghatak. Seniors are now offered some concessions by the government and private companies. Indian Railways was perhaps the first public sector undertaking in our country to offer concessions to senior citizens. The Indian Airlines followed suit. Presently, senior citizens are offered 0.5 per cent to 0.75 per cent additional interest on their fixed deposits with the banks. Senior citizens may not be able to encash the additional interest income as the taxable limit has been lowered to Rs 5000.00. More painful to the senior citizens than this is the drastic reduction in the rate of the Public Provident Fund (to 9.5). The interest rate of the PPF can be restored to the original level, it is felt, and it be made applicable to only those senior citizens, who have invested in PPF for a longer period say ten years. In the absence of other remunerative and safe investment avenues, this could be a real source of assured income for the senior citizens, Mr.Ghatak contends.