Senior citizens can petition President on tax on their deposits
View(s):Following the concerns raised by readers over taxes being enforced on deposits by senior citizens, the President’s Office has now created space on its website for citizens to comment on the proposal.
Titled ‘Tell the President”, the page can be accessed from the link below:
https://tell.president.gov.lk/petition/showSignPetition.mvc?id=881&title=introduction-of-withholding-tax-for-senior-citizens
This information was conveyed to the Business Times by a reader Tissa Kulasekera who had raised these concerns in our “Letters” column.
“After publishing several letters in your “letters to the editor” section in the Business Times about the with-holding tax deduction from senior citizens’ bank deposits some results have been obtained. The “Tell the President” page handled by the President’s Office has started a survey on this and the link is given above,” he said, urging the newspaper to publish the link so that affected parties can also respond.
However the Finance Ministry on Friday allayed the fears of senior citizens saying that anyone earning up to Rs.1.5 million (or Rs. 125,000 per month) in annual interest need not pay any tax and that 95 per cent of senior citizens will be exempt from this tax.