May 1, 2016
New Delhi: Taxpayers account for just about 1% of India’s population, but tax outgo was over `1 crore for as many as 5,430 individuals, as per the latest data disclosed by the government for assessment year 2012-13.
May 1, 2016
New Delhi: Taxpayers account for just about 1% of India’s population, but tax outgo was over `1 crore for as many as 5,430 individuals, as per the latest data disclosed by the government for assessment year 2012-13.
Just 1% of the population pay taxes: Nearly 2.87 crore salary earners filed their income-tax returns in the assessment year 2012-13.
As part of a transparency drive, the government has made public direct tax data for last 15 years. Data for individuals has been published only for 2012-13 assessment year, which shows taxes for income in financial year ended 31 March 2012. A total of 2.87 crore individuals filed income-tax returns for that year, but 1.62 crore of them did not pay any tax—leaving the number of taxpayers at just about 1.25 crore which was close to 1% of the country’s total population of about 123 crore at that time.
The tax outgo was less than `1.5 lakh for a vast majority of nearly 89% taxpayers (over 1.11 crore). Their average tax payable was just about `21,000, while the collective amount stood at over `23,000 crore. The three individuals in the top-bracket of `100-500 crore paid a total tax of `437 crore—resulting in an average tax outgo of `145.80 crore.
As many as 5,430 individuals paid income tax of over `1 crore. Out of this, the tax range was `1-5 crore for more than 5,000 individuals, resulting in a total outgo of `8,907 crore. As per the overall data, total income-tax collections rose nine-fold to `2.86 trillion in 2015-16, from `31,764 crore in 2000-01.
The data further said that the bulk of individuals, who filed returns for the assessment year 2012-13 earned an annual salary between `5.5 lakh and `9.5 lakh. Over 20.23 lakh taxpayers earned `5.5-9.5 lakh, while their cumulative salary earnings stood at `1.40 trillion in the financial year 2011-12.
Further 19.18 lakh individuals earned salary of `2.5-3.5 lakh that year. Six individuals fell in the high-end earning bracket of `50-100 crore of salary income. In the salary range of `1-5 crore, there were as many as 17,515 individuals. Nearly 2.87 crore salary earners filed their income-tax returns in assessment year 2012-13.
Courtesy: PTI
