Twitter reacts to Arun Jaitely's proposal for EPF withdrawal taxation

Finance minister Arun Jaitley is facing a lot of criticism at large over his proposal to tax 60 per cent of withdrawals from Provident Fund. Reportedly, Jaitley alleged that the move was aimed at high-salaried class and not the vast section of 3.7 crore EPF members. He said that the proposal is aimed at making India a more insured and pensioned society as the Budget provision provides for no tax on EPF withdrawal if it is invested in pension-based annuities.

At the same time, Financial Services Secretary, Hasmukh Adhia asserted that "FM has the liberty to review EPF tax". The statement indicated at the revision of the proposal. However, he refused to speculate. Even so, the move to tax employee provident fund withdrawals has not gone too well with the salaried class.

Here's what Twitterati had to say:

@arunjaitley #taxingEPF it will surely hurt the middle very badly please revoke it

- guruprasad (@guruprasadz) March 2, 2016

@PMOIndia Sir, #taxingEPF is not good for and why only salaried class are more burdened with taxes. Kindly review. @FinMinIndia

- Dip (@dgogoi) March 2, 2016

@narendramodi @arunjaitley Taxing EPF, Increasing ServiceTax.. Middle Class young voters are watching #TaxingEPF #BudgetVerdict #Budget2016

- Political Donkey (@PoliticalDonkey) March 2, 2016

NDA may implement funeral tax soon. Please die before that. 😉 - A comment by CJ+ here, #taxingEPF https://t.co/WIPfwROmuu

- Gowtham (@HereisGowtham) March 2, 2016

#TaxingEPF Wrong to treat middle class as second class citizen

- Sudhanshu (@Sudhanshu162) March 2, 2016