Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Budget 2018 could have been still better' that was published in Newsband

Budget 2018 could have been still better

Budget 2018 focuses on senior citizens. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stressed “to care for those who cared for us is one of the highest honours”. The budget indeed provides economic support for India’s growing population of senior citizens. It also announces several tax and related incentives to ease the financial burden on people aged 60 and above.

The Budget offers much-needed relief. This it does by leaving a little more money in the hands of elderly savers who are heavily dependent on interest income to meet their living expenses. There is a proposal to raise the annual income tax deduction limit for health insurance premium and/or medical reimbursement to ₹50,000 for all seniors. There is also a move to set the ceiling for deduction in lieu of expenses incurred on certain critical illnesses to ₹1 lakh, irrespective of the age of the senior citizen.

The Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana Yojana entitles the senior citizen policyholder to a guaranteed pension that equates to an annual return of 8% on investment. The budget clearly respects the right to a life with dignity.

More than 70% of the 104 million elderly are living in the rural hinterland, The Budget provides ₹6,565 crore for the pension scheme for the elderly poor. The number of the elderly in India is set to surge by 2050 to almost 300 million, or about a fifth of the population.

But many sections of people are disappointed with budget and senior citizens, due to their sizeable population, expected some crucial steps towards their welfare. But the government belied their expectations. Pensions and other financial benefits have not been increased in commensurate with inflation. Due to nucleus families, old people are suffering from lack of personal attention and proper old-age homes. They need special care homes with adequate persons. They also need facility for emergency treatment

The plight of senior citizens in villages are very bad. Most of them do not have incomes & are ill. They can hardly afford medical treatment. They cannot afford to come to cities for medical treatments and there is no place of free lodging for them. Most of old people are abandoned by their families. There is no provision for senior citizens home free of cost. The old people cannot afford to go to Senior citizens Home. As a matter of fact the lives of senior citizens are insulted and humiliated one. Is there any way out?

There are different classes/categories of senior citizens and each class may have different needs and not all of them may be related to money. Therefore, the Central & State governments have to join hands to make life of senior citizens a little more comfortable and here providing affordable & dependable healthcare deserves topmost priority. Today, we find that government pensioners who receive DA linked pension receive good more attention and that is fine. But it is a bitter fact that non-pensioners are worried about rapidly falling interest rates. Hence there is a clear need to have specific investment schemes for non-pensioners and their families so that their interest income, which happens to be the main source of livelihood, remains unaffected by rapid fall in interest rates on bank deposits etc. Quality of service provided in public hospitals has to be improved considerably and they have to be patient-friendly so that senior citizens can depend on these hospitals.