After everyone had heaped their displeasure on Finacne Minister Arun Jaitley for taxing EPF withdrawals, he prudently decided to completely roll back the controversial proposal.
Jaitley made a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha today during which he also announced that there would be no monetary limit on the contribution by employers to provident and superannuation fund for taking tax benefit.
Indications of this move had started coming in from March 5, when reports emerged of PM Narendra Modi intervening in the issue and requesting Jaitley to get rid of the controversial proposal.
After the rollback was officially announced, some news channels broke the story giving Modi the credit.
On the other side of the political spectrum, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi was quick to claim credit for the rollback, reports NDTV.
“My pressure did work”, said Rahul as he mounted a fresh attack on the Modi government. He added that the attempt to tax the safety net of the middle class was “morally” wrong.
In a series of tweets, Rahul said the government was forced to listen to people and rollback the “patently unfair” tax on EPF.
Terming it as a “big victory” for the people of the country, Congress said Modi once again “quickly and meekly” caved in to the pressure exerted by Rahul Gandhi.
Congress spokesman Sanjay Jha tweeted,
“Modi, ONCE AGAIN, quickly/ meekly caves in to pressure exerted by @OfficeOfRG, fighting for the common man. #EPF(sic)”.
Party’s chief spokesman Randeep Surjewala termed it as a “big victory” for people of the country. “Modi government was forced to withdraw the anti-people measure in the wake of nationwide protests of the salaried class. It is a big victory of people,” he said on the micro-blogging site.
(With Inputs from PTI)
(Feature Image Source: PTI)