Call to drop capital gains tax

CHENNAI: The Prince of Arcot Nawab Mohammad Abdul Ali on Tuesday urged the Central Government to consider exempting super senior citizens, who are above 80 years of age, from paying capital gains tax.In a letter addressed to the Prime Minister and marked to the Union Minister for Finance, the Prince said that the elderly citizens might be facing considerable hardship as they might be forced to sell their properties to meet their and their spouses’ soaring medical expenses, to repay debts, to meet education expenses of their children or grand children or to distribute the share among their inheritors during their lifetime to avoid any misunderstanding after their death.The Prince expressed hope that the Centre would consider extending this concession to super senior citizens while presenting the Union Budget in February 2012.He further said that super senior citizens would, with great difficulty, have nurtured their younger generations and after much risk and responsibility, would have saved some property.