Number of crorepati taxpayers in India up 60% in 4 years: CBDT
23 Oct 2018
The number of taxpayers in India (including corporates, firms, HUFs, etc) showing income of above Rs1 crore recorded a sharp increase over the three-year period between FY14 and FY17 (income tax assessment years 2014-15 and 2017-18), data released by the Central Bureau of Direct Taxes (CBDT) showed.
While 88,649 taxpayers disclosed income above Rs1 crore in AY 2014-15, the figure was 1,40,139 for AY 2017-18 (growth of about 60 per cent).
Similarly, the number of individual taxpayers disclosing income above Rs1 crore increased during the period under reference from 48,416 to 81,344, which translates into a growth of 68%.
The average tax paid by corporate taxpayers has increased from Rs32,28,000 in AY 2014-15 to Rs49,95,000 in AY 2017-18 (growth of 55 per cent). There is also an increase of 26 per cent in the average tax paid by individual taxpayers from Rs46,377 in AY 2014-15 to Rs58,576 in AY 2017-18.
During the three-year period under reference, the number of salaried taxpayers has increased from 17.0 million for AY 2014-15 to 23.3 million for AY 2017-18 (up 37 per cent). The average income declared by the salaried taxpayers has gone up by 19 per cent from Rs5,76,00 to Rs6,84,000.
The number of income tax returns filed increased by more than 80 per cent over the last four financial years from 37.9 million in FY 2013-14 (base year) to 68.5 million in FY 2017-18.
There has been a constant growth in direct tax-GDP ratio over last three years and the ratio of 5.98 per cent in FY 2017-18 is the best DT-GDP ratio in last 10 years, according to CBDT.
The number of persons filing return of income has also increased by about 65 per cent during this period from 33.1 million in FY 2013-14 to 54.4 million in FY 2017-18.
There has been continuous increase in the amount of income declared in the returns filed by all categories of taxpayers over the last three assessment years (AYs). For AY 2014-15, corresponding to FY 2013-14 (base year), the gross total income declared stood at Rs26,92, 000 crore, which has increased by 67 per cent to Rs44,88,000 crore for AY 2017-18, showing higher level of compliance, says CBDT.
This is attributed to various legislative and administrative measures taken by the government, including effective enforcement measures against tax evasion such as demonetisation and income disclosure schemes.
During the same period, there has also been a 19 per cent growth in the number of non-salaried individual taxpayers from 19.5 million to 23.3 million while the average non-salary income declared has increased by 27 per cent from Rs4,11,00 in AY 2014-15 to Rs5,23,000 in AY 2017-18.