Budget 2025: Senior citizens have high expectations from the budget of 2025. Prior to the Kovid-19 epidemic, senior citizens used to get a discount of 40 to 50 percent on the train ticket, but the facility was discontinued during the epidemic. Now the effect of Kovid is over, yet the government has not resumed this concession. Senior citizens have demanded that the exemption on train tickets be restored in the upcoming budget.
There was a discount till 2019
By the end of 2019, Indian Railway (Indian Railway and IRCTC) used to provide exemption to special trains like Mail, Express, Rajdhani, Shatabdi, and Duronto on tickets. Men aged 60 years or older received a concession of 40% on tickets and 50% of women aged 58 years or older. For example, if the first AC ticket of Rajdhani Express was Rs 4,000, it was available for senior citizens for Rs 2,000 or Rs 2,300.
After Kovid, the discount on trains closed
At the beginning of the Kovid epidemic, in 2020, the government stopped the discount on the railway ticket. Even after the epidemic, this facility has not been resumed. Senior citizens say that after retirement they have limited means of income, and railway discounts made their journey economical. In such a situation, they want this relief to be given again.
Expectations from finance minister
On 1 February 2025, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget of the Central Government. This will be the first budget of the third term of the Modi government, which especially has many expectations to senior citizens. Senior citizens say that the government should resume this exemption and make the journey accessible for them. He believes that millions of senior citizens will benefit from getting this demand in the budget. It will now be seen whether this relief will be brought back in the budget 2025.