Senior citizens, banks and cemetery

I read an interesting letter in The Island, by one SAK, in reply to my letter on the withdrawal of automatic renewal of special fixed deposits of seniors, which draws a special rate of 15 percent interest. My source of information was a news story, read over one of our vociferous TV stations, with close ties to bigwigs. So it must be genuine. As suggested by RAK, if we are to threaten to withdraw our deposits and move to another bank, it will not yield any fruitful result as the authorities are deaf and blind, even to strike action by huge powerful trade unions. We see so many queues and people protesting, in one voice, but are they successful? Who will want to physically go to bank A, to withdraw, and again to bank B to deposit, at this old age, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, is the question? This is actually why we want to avoid travelling to the bank for renewal of deposit, which was auto-renewed by banks. So let banks use their brains and solve this crisis by sending the WHT declaration form. by post to us, or via email. and we could return it with a life certificate from the Grama Niladhari to prove that we are still kicking in beds. Banks: Don’t send us to Kanatte prematurely.

SUMITH DE SILVA