I have gone through your website and I found that your organisation is doing excellent service to ageing persons. Through this mail I offer my good wishes to and your team for the dedicated service rendered to elderly people, especially enabling the retired to lead an active and meaningful life.

As your organisation is committed to the welfare of elders, I thought of bringing to your kind attention the plight of retirees aged 60 and above, especially Private Sector employees, most of who do not get a pension and sustain from interest income only. In India , the private sector employees retire from employment at the age of 58 or 60. After retirement they often do not get a pension. Such retirees invest their retirement benefits like gratuity and provident fund in Post Office and banks and live on interest. For example, a retiree in the age group of 60-64, without any pension and with an annual interest income of Rs 1, 30,000 from Senior Citizen Savings Saving Scheme, has to suffer TDS of Rs13, 390- @10.3% and claim for the refund of excess tax deducted. Assuming that his tax on total income is nil he cannot even issue Form 15H for non deduction of TDS of Rs13, 390. This is because he has not reached age of 65 to qualify as Senior Citizen. He has to file his return and get back excess tax deducted at source as refund which takes more than a year. Retirees without pension are already overburdened with a price-rise in all commodities, high health cost, along with other family commitments. The life of a retiree without pension is miserable.

If Government of India classifies elders 60 and above as Senior Citizens for the purpose of Income tax then lakhs of retirees aged 60 and above, who sustain on interest income alone, will have exemption of tax on income of Rs1,95.000- as against Rs1,10,000, and they can live with dignity. If the plight of retirees is taken up by your organisation to the Government of India, I am sure it will heed to your request and reduce the age of Senior Citizens from 65 to 60 for Income tax purposes in this FY 2007-2008 itself.

This gesture on your part will greatly relieve the tax burden of lakhs of retirees of age 60 who depend on interest income only.

A.Viswanathan

Editor: We are now determined to fight the Govt. Sixty years age marking is almost through -I heard from reliable sources that documents are going though the final stages. We should be hopefully hearing about it soon.