New Delhi: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday sought credit for the government's rollback of proposed move to tax EPF withdrawals. In a series of tweets, Gandhi said the government was “forced” to listen to the people and roll back the “patently unfair” tax on EPF.
“Finally the Govt was forced to listen to people and roll back the patently unfair tax on EPF,” he wrote.
Gandhi further said that the proposal to tax EPF withdrawals was a ‘morally wrong' attempt by the Centre. “But the attempt to tax the safety net of millions of hard working middle class ppl was morally wrong & shows this Govt's anti-ppl mindset(sic)”, he said on the micro-blogging site.
In the face of all round attack, Finance minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday completely rolled back the controversial proposal. The move follows a supposed intervention by the Prime Minister asking his cabinet colleague to reconsider the proposal.
He made a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha during which he also announced withdrawal of imposing monetary limit for contribution of employers to provident and superannuation fund of Rs 1.5 lakh for taking tax benefit.
Terming the roll back of the proposal as a “big victory” for people of the country, Congress said Modi once again “quickly and meekly” caved in to the pressure exerted by Rahul Gandhi.
Congress spokesperson 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 spokesperson 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 (sic),” he said on the micro-blogging site.
(With PTI inputs)
