Tax on EPF to affect employees severely: Assam CM Tarun Gogoi

New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday said the proposal in the Union Budget to impose tax on Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) during withdrawal after retirement will severely affect employees.

“The Budget 2016-17 proposal to impose a tax on 60 per cent of the corpus at the time of withdrawal of the EPF amount after retirement is going to affect the employees severely,” Gogoi said in a statement here.

EPF is a retirement benefit scheme, which is structured to provide financial security to employees, and imposing tax on the amount is going to hurt the employees hard. EPF is tax-free at all the three stages — investment, interest accumulation, and withdrawal — and imposing tax on EPF will affect the future of the employees, he said.

“The move of the Centre has a direct bearing on the security of the retired employees and I urge upon the Centre to roll back this budgetary announcement soon,” Gogoi added.