Bill 226.

Summary.

Article 1 amends Law 6 of June 16, 1987 to provide benefits for Panamanian citizens and resident foreign nationals aged fifty-five or older if women, or sixty or older if men, and for all retirees and pensioners. It proposes a 50% discount on recreational and entertainment activities, subject to an exception for certain charitable activities. For transport, it sets discounts of 30% on intercity buses, trains, launches and boats; 25% on air fares; and 30% on the PANAPASS charge of the National Highway Company (Empresa Nacional de Autopistas) for a personal vehicle. Hotels, motels and guesthouses would provide discounts that vary by day of the week.

For food services, the bill distinguishes restaurants by type, number of employees or monthly revenue, and covers certain urban fondas. Municipal mayors would check those characteristics and verify that the benefit is displayed at the premises or on the menu. Fast-food outlets operating national or international franchises would also provide a discount. Health-related benefits cover private hospitals and clinics, medicines, medical consultations, dentistry, optometry, laboratory tests, diagnostic imaging and cancer treatments. Insurers whose policies cover illness would adjust premiums so that the benefit of the discounts is passed on to eligible insured persons.

The amendment also provides discounts on technical and professional services, prostheses and assistive devices. For personal and commercial loans, it reduces closing expenses or commissions, bars charges for discount services, and exempts transactions from the surcharge or levy under the Special Interest Compensation Fund. It provides discounts on interest rates, card annual fees and insurance connected with banking or financial products. Home mortgages for the borrower's own use would receive an interest-rate discount, except where preferential rates have been established by law. The bill would also freeze property tax on the beneficiary's sole home registered in that person's name and exempt a sole property used as a home from the betterment levy.

Article 1 further covers passports, identity-card renewals, driver's licences, electricity, airport charges, telephone services, internet, cable television and residential water consumption, subject to the stated conditions. It extends specified service and tax benefits to properties of legally constituted associations, federations and confederations of retirees and pensioners. Registration fees would be waived for nonprofit organizations of retirees, pensioners and older people. Additional discounts cover funerals, business-operation notices, patents, copyright registration, notarial services, land registration and university admission. The procedures involve the Public Registry, the Ministry of Commerce and Industries (Ministerio de Comercio e Industrias), the Ministry of Culture (Ministerio de Cultura), and the National Land Administration Authority (Autoridad Nacional de Administración de Tierras).

Article 2 requires state and private companies providing public services to maintain special service points and give eligible people permanent priority. Where no such point exists, retirees and pensioners would take priority in the regular queue and receive preferential treatment in public and private offices. Article 3 adds Article 3-A: scheduled and emergency health services for retirees could not be disregarded or cancelled without just cause and advance notice. Article 4 assigns the Consumer Protection and Competition Defense Authority (Autoridad de Protección al Consumidor y Defensa de la Competencia) responsibility for penalties, complaints, inspection of visible discount notices and oversight. Fines would go to the Special Fund for Retirees and Pensioners. Article 6 identifies the amendment to Law 6 of June 16, 1987. The bill's provisions concern these public bodies and the transport, tourism, food-service, health-care, insurance, credit, utility, telecommunications, funeral-service and education sectors.