An even smaller number, only 1.3 crore individuals in 2014-14, paid income tax. 2.
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The data has prompted a lively debate about the extent of tax evasion in India – with commentators noting that there were very few tax returns at the highest end of the income spectrum.
Rich people paying little income tax make headlines, but that’s the exception.
The data also showed that the bulk of individuals who filed I-T returns for the assessment year 2012-13 earned an annual salary between INR 5.5 lakh and INR 9.5 lakh.
As a major aspect of a simple drive, the legislature has made open direct expense information for most recent 15 years.
While releasing this data, Meenakshi J Goswami, Commissioner of Income Tax, Media and Technical Policy and Official Spokesperson, CBDT said, “The objective of publishing this statistics is to encourage wider use and analysis of Income tax data by Departmental personnel as well as various stakeholders including economists, scholars, students, researchers and academicians for purposes of tax policy formulation and revenue forecasting”. The three individuals in the top-bracket of Rs.100-500 crore paid a total tax of Rs.437 crore-resulting in an average tax outgo of Rs.145.80 crore.
The tax outgo was less than Rs.1.5 lakh for a vast majority of almost 89% taxpayers (over 1.11 crore). More than 20.23 lakh citizens earned Rs. 5.5-9.5 lakh, while their total pay income remained at Rs. 1.40 lakh crore in the money related the year 2011-12.
Data for individuals has been published only for FY13 assessment year, which shows taxes for income in financial year ended March 31, 2012.
A total of 1.4 lakh individual assessees, with an income between Rs.10 lakh and Rs.50 lakh, paid Rs.26,886 crore in taxes while 2.4 lakh taxpayers with an income between Rs.5 lakh and Rs.10 lakh paid Rs.16,131 crore collectively, the report said. It was 3.25% in 2000-01 and the ratio has risen to 51% in 2015-16.
Modi said in his tweet: “It is a big step towards transparency & informed policy making”. The cost of collection has gone down from 1.36 per cent to 0.62 per cent.
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Piketty, author of the bestselling Capital in the Twenty-First Century, in January blasted India for its “extreme lack of transparency” on income tax data.
