Senior citizens upset over delay on 12% interest benefit
View(s):Several senior citizens, who have deposits in state banks, have expressed anger and frustration over the delay in implementing the 2015 budget proposal to offer 12 per cent on their deposits.
T. Rusiripala, President of the Peoples Bank Pensioners Association, said he was the first to welcome the proposal but today “we are in a quandary as the state banks have failed to implement the scheme to give effect to this proposal”.
He said it is a pity as to how officials have failed to implement this scheme which had much expectation of this sector of the society. “Those of us who praised the proposal, in the spirit that it was made, are subject to much embarrassment and humiliation by the public while those responsible are sleeping over the matter,” he added.
The process has been delayed due to procedural issues in its implementation.
Banking officials said it has been decided that the 12 per cent interest would be confined to one account per person (60 years and over) and restricted to a deposit of below Rs. 1 million (applicable to multiple accounts but all together below Rs. 1 million). The proposal also envisages a declaration to the bank by a deposit-holder that the 12 per cent interest would apply to one deposit (or Rs. 1 million in multiple deposits). The budget didn’t given details on the proposal except hope and, as a result, most elderly deposit holders believed that all their money in deposits (without any restriction) would be entitled to the high interest bonanza.
“To our chagrin, we find we have been deceived into this belief. This a fraud perpetrated on the people,” one angry citizen said.