The government said without disclosing the name of any HNI, the accounts of the country’s top 20 HNIs have deposits of about Rs 825 crore, and the accounts of the top 100 HNI contributors together have deposits of over Rs 2,000 crore.
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Overall, 99 per cent of EPF-registered contributors contribute Rs 2.5 lakh or less, and all those who contribute Rs 2.5 lakh or less annually to the PF will benefit from the tax exemption.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had proposed in the budget of 2021 that the interest paid to employees whose annual contribution to PF is Rs 2.5 lakh or more, will be taxable. This EPF scheme has been introduced to protect private employees who do not have any savings after retiring or leaving their jobs.
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HNIs constitute 0.27 per cent of the total EPF account holders in the country, and have an average deposit of Rs 5.92 crore per person in their accounts, on which they earn tax-free interest of Rs 50.3 lakh per person per year. Salaried and other taxpayers actually pay the price of their income.
Any exemption in taxes is actually given by the amount of tax payers, so, according to sources, it was unfair that a small group of HNIs be allowed to take advantage of a public welfare scheme and wrongly get tax free income Be given He also said that general EPF account holders will not be affected by this change in the rules.
It is reported that there are more than 4.5 crore account holders in EPF. Of these, 1.23 lakh accounts are linked to HNIs, which deposit it in large amounts monthly, and their total contribution is estimated at Rs 62,500 crore. The accounts of the top 20 HNIs allegedly have deposits of Rs 825 crore, while the accounts of the top 100 HNI contributors together have deposits of over Rs 2,000 crore.
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