The plight of senior citizens

While the state caters generously for its retired government officials and staff, who are provided subsidized housing during service, get generous pensions, plots along with tax reliefs on property post-retirement, their equally, or more, qualified professionals serving in private, public and SOE enterprises are neglected. Most of the direct income tax collected in this country is paid by professionals working in the private or public sector. Despite having paid taxes all their working life, there is absolutely no relief by the state to senior citizens including those who are above 70 years.
Professionals working in the private and public sector mostly do not receive any pension, or the amount is not sufficient enough to meet the minimum subsistence level. Even the most qualified professionals working in the private and public sectors save just enough money to build a house of their own. Their medical benefits post-retirement period is almost non-existent. In a country where there exists no reliable social security welfare system, their problems become more acute, given the likelihood of ailments occurring when they go beyond the age of 70 years. Given the insufficient pensionable emoluments, these senior citizens invest their lifelong savings and provident fund in National Saving Centre schemes like Pension Benefit Fund and Bahbood etc. to get enough income to meet their bare minimum needs. It is ironic that while in-service salaried persons get a tax-free relief of 6 Lakh on their annual emoluments, those who are retired are given tax relief of only Rs 4 Lakh. The state should be generous enough to realize the enormity of problems faced by former salaried senior citizens from the private and public sector, who contributed to the development of this country and are still on the Active Filers list by giving them a more generous Tax-Free Relief per annum or even consider waiving it in totality for those beyond 70 years. If the State can pay tax-free pensions to former government officers, they must exhibit the same generosity to retirees from the private and public sectors.
MALIK TARIQ ALI,
Lahore