FM retains tax exemption for National Pension System Just over a week after the announcement, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday rolled back his controversial Budget proposal to tax Employees’ Provident Fund ( EPF) withdrawal. The Budget had announced that 40 per cent of the total corpus withdrawn from the EPF would be tax- exempt and the balance 60 per cent would be taxable unless the amount is used to buy an annuity product. Jaitley also took back his earlier proposal to tax contribution made by an employer beyond Rs.1.5 lakh a year to EPF. Both the proposals had drawn strong protest from the Opposition, trade unions and the salaried class. Jaitley, however, retained a proposal not to tax 40 per cent of money withdrawn from National Pension System( NPS). This means that only balance 60 per cent would be taxed against the current practice of taxing the entire amount withdrawn from NPS. Making a suo motu statement in the Lok Sabha on the issue, Jaitley said, “ In view of