'My pressure worked': Rahul Gandhi claims credit for roll back of tax on EPF withdrawal

NEW DELHI: Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday claimed credit for the government's decision to roll back the proposal to tax employees provident fund (EPF) withdrawals."My pressure worked...I had warned the government against suppressing the salaried class. It is a good decision," said Rahul, after finance minister Arun Jaitley's announcement in Parliament on Tuesday morning about EPF withdrawals.Jaitley completely rolled back his Budget proposal to tax the employees' provident fund (EPF) at the time of withdrawal.The proposal came under immediate fire from both employee unions and political parties who said the government was taxing employees when they need the funds most."I felt middle-class people were being hurt by the government, so I decided to put some pressure. Happy that they've got some relief," said the Congress vice president, talking to reporters"The attempt to tax the safety net of millions of hard working middle class people was morally wrong and shows this government's anti-people mindset," Rahul said.Jaitley made a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha in which he also announced the government won't impose a monetary limit for contribution of employers to provident and superannuation funds of Rs 1.5 lakhs to enable getting a tax benefit.The finance minister, however, left untouched the proposal to tax exempt 40 per cent of National Pension Scheme and services provided by the EPFO to employees."In view of the representations received, the government would like to do a comprehensive review of this proposal and therefore I withdraw the proposals in para 138 and 139 in my Budget speech. The proposal of 40 per cent exemption given to NPS subscribers at the time of withdrawal remains," the finance minister said.The minister had earlier indicated that he would address the concerns on retirement tax when he replied to the debate on Budget 2016-17 in Parliament.In his Budget, Jaitley had proposed to tax 60 per cent of the corpus of the EPF contributions created after April 1, 2016, at the time of withdrawal. He proposed exempting these from income tax if the amount was invested instead in a pension annuity scheme.(With inputs from agencies)