Sri Lanka, April 2 -- It is a shame that the government is treating lower income senior citizens with newfangled requirements from April 1st.
Most don't earn 1.8 million rupees interest per annum on FDs. So every rupee revived is used on essentials, food and medicine mostly. Bad enough the interest amounts are in the single digit. The withholding tax on interest is increased from 5% to 10% from April 1st.
Non tax payers have to fill a declaration form available in banks to start the process of receiving that 10% withholding tax.
Lo and behold to fill in that form a TIN number is required. Can 80 and 90 year olds trek to the Inland Revenue or resort to other technical know-how?
On calling 1944 to check the requirements for the TIN number...