Senior citizens in the city are neither too happy nor too disappointed with Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s maiden budget.
While welcoming the raising of the tax exemption limit from Rs.2.5 lakh to Rs.3 lakh, they point out that several demands raised by senior citizens over the years, including a comprehensive health insurance scheme and social security measures, have been ignored.
S. Ayyappan Nair, a retired IAS officer and active member of various senior citizens’ organisations, including the Senior Citizens’ Association Thiruvananthapuram (SCAT), feels senior citizens did not get the priority they deserved in the budget. While the hike in the tax exemption limit was a good step, he feels much more, including strengthening the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and ensuring availability of essential medicines for senior citizens, could have been done. SCAT president Vimala Menon felt more safety and security measures should have been extended to senior citizens with more concessions included in the Old Age policy. The minimum pension, pegged at Rs.1,000 presently, should have been raised to at least Rs.3,000, “considering facts like the price of life-saving medicines and essential goods.”
Pointing out that at least Rs.100 per day was necessary for a senior citizen, Ms. Menon felt focus on hardcore realities was missing in the budget.
S. Haneefa Rawther, general secretary of the Senior Citizens Service Council and national vice-president of the All India Senior Citizens’ Confederation, said that the hike of tax exemption limit to Rs.3 lakh was a small solace and the actual demands of senior citizens were not heard. There was a long-pending demand for a law on ensuring a monthly pension of Rs.2,000 to senior citizens who had no pension and also for a comprehensive health insurance scheme, which would be free for those without pension and subsidised for those who had pension.
“None of these figures in the budget,” he said.
