Letters to the Editor
View(s):Impractical system introduced when opening savings account
While offering only a 3% increase over the standard savings account interest rate, the government has introduced an unnecessarily cumbersome account-opening process. This places a heavy burden on both bank staff and prospective account holders.
Visit any bank and you will see how this impractical system overwhelms the staff. There are at least three forms to be completed. If your old NIC shows a different address from the one on the application, the process stops immediately. But consider a person over 60 who has had to change residences for various reasons—is he expected to obtain a new NIC every time he moves? And what if he changes his address after opening the account? Will the account be closed?
Are senior officials truly so irrational as to impose such rules? A fraudster or money-launderer can carry out illegal activities regardless of the address printed on their NIC.
For a government that claims to champion modernization, such absurd procedures only serve to harass both the public and state employees.
K. Siriweera Via email
Open letter to the Secretary Ministry of Finance
‘Governance of a society is measured by how it treats its senior citizens’.
With increasing demographic changes in the elderly population in Sri Lanka, the government should take this reality seriously. Health is an issue that needs special focus for this group. Payment for carers, medical consultations, investigations, drugs, procedures, and hospitalisation are all costly. The free government services, have many shortcomings in this respect. Even drugs for common cancers are not yet available.
I think I speak for this elderly group when I say, the personal allowance of one lakh per month as a tax rebate is insufficient. If the Senior Citizen can prove his/her expenses as having been actually spent on the above-mentioned list to the Inland Revenue Department, such expenses should be allowed to be deducted. The Budget speech for 2026, is not clear in this respect.
Dr. Channa Ratnatunga Via email
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