Ad

Tag: EPF withdrawal Tax

Tolerant jaitely Withdraws Proposal to Tax ‪‎EPF‬ Withdrawal

[New Delhi] Tolerant FM Arun jaitely Accepts Opposition’s Intolerance And Withdraws Proposal to Tax ‪‎EPF‬ Withdrawal
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today withdrew his Budget proposal to tax employees’ provident fund (EPF) at withdrawal.
Jaitley had in his Budget for 2016-17 proposed to tax withdrawal of 60 per cent of accumulations in the employee provident fund after April 1, 2016.
This was Opposed by all employees unions as well as political parties.
Arun Jaitley in a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha said
“In view of representations received, the government would like to do a comprehensive review of this proposal and therefore I withdraw the proposal,”
He however stated that 40 per cent exemption given to National Pension Scheme (NPS) subscriber at the time of withdrawal remains.
In his budget proposal, Jaitley had proposed that 40 per cent of the EPF withdrawals would be tax exempt and the remaining 60 per cent would also get the same treatment provided the amount is invested in pension annuity schemes.
Political Parties Are Demanding Freedom To Invest
Theoretically such freedom is desirable, but it is important the government to achieve policy objective by instrumentality of taxation. In the present form, the policy objective is not to get more revenue but to encourage people to join the pension scheme,” Jaitley said explaining the rationale for the taxation proposal.
The proposal would not have impacted 3.26 crore EPFO subscribers drawing statutory wage of upto Rs 15,000 per month. Employees Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) has a total subscriber base of 3.7 crore.

Congress Demands Rollback of Proposed EPF Withdrawal Tax

[New Delhi]Congress Demands Rollback of Proposed EPF Withdrawal Tax
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi today lent his voice to the chorus of demands for rolling back the proposal for taxing EPF withdrawal to give relief to employees and not to “thieves” who would benefit from the “fair and lovely scheme” in the budget on blackmoney.
“EPF is the safety net of the employees and imposing a tax on this is wrong. Gandhi told reporters in Parliament House complex.
He said that Modi should instill confidence in the employees and voters by withdrawing the proposal.
Taking a jibe again at the proposed single-window compliance scheme on black money, announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget, Gandhi said relief should be given to the employees and not to the “thieves.” “I had said yesterday that you (Modi) have given the fair and lovely scheme to thieves. (Instead) Our voters and employees should get relief,” he added.
Picking on the one-time compliance window announced in the Budget as a “Fair and Lovely” scheme, Gandhi had yesterday said this was nothing but a move to turn the black money into white.
The 2016-17 Budget speech has proposed that 60 per cent of withdrawal from contribution to EPF made after April 1 this year will be subject to tax.
An official press note later said the demands for levying tax only on the accumulated returns on the corpus and not on the contributed amount was under government’s consideration.
The total portfolio under the pension and provident fund scheme is estimated to be around Rs 6.5 lakh crore