01 FEB 2018
With the objective of providing a
dignified life to senior citizens, the Union Minister for Finance and
Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley, announced significant incentives
for senior citizens.
Presenting the General Budget 2018-19 in
Parliament here today, the Finance Minister said that the exemption of
interest income on deposits with banks and post offices to be increased
from Rs. 10,000/- to Rs. 50,000/- and TDS shall not be required to be
deducted on such income, under section 194A. This benefit shall be
available also for interest from all fixed deposits schemes and
recurring deposit schemes.
The Finance Minister also announced
raising the limit of deduction for health insurance premium and/ or
medical expenditure from Rs. 30,000/- to Rs. 50,000/-, under section
80D. All senior citizens will now be able to claim benefit of deduction
up to Rs. 50,000/- per annum in respect of any health insurance premium
and/or any general medical expenditure incurred.
Further, the Finance Minister proposed
raising the limit of deduction for medical expenditure in respect of
certain critical illness from Rs. 60,000/- in case of senior citizens
and from Rs. 80,000/- in case of very senior citizens, to Rs. 1 lakh in
respect of all senior citizens, under section 80DDB.
These concessions will give extra tax benefit of Rs. 4,000 crores to senior citizens.
In addition to tax concessions, the
Finance Minister proposed to extend the Pradhan Mantri Vaya Vandana
Yojana up to March 2020 under which an assured return of 8% is given by
Life Insurance Corporation of India. The existing limit on investment of
Rs. 7.5 lakh per senior citizen under this scheme is also being
enhanced to Rs. 15 lakh.
