Union Budget 2026: How it helps senior citizens
This year's Union Budget, announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, brings a bunch of updates aimed at making life a bit easier for seniors.
Key highlights include duty-free allowances will be revised, with clarity on bringing a new laptop and household articles when transferring residence from abroad, reduced TCS (now just 2%) on overseas travel, education, and medical remittances, plus a new six-month window to declare foreign assets for small taxpayers.
Experts' take on budget
While these changes directly help seniors—think cheaper meds with duty exemptions on cancer drugs and rare disease treatments—they also matter if you're supporting older family members or planning finances together.
The budget keeps popular benefits like higher TDS thresholds on interest income and AB PM-JAY provides ₹5 lakh per family per year, and the expansion covers senior citizens aged 70 or above (i.e., 70 years and older).
Experts say it's a step forward but hope to see more support for things like home-care services in the future.