India's crorepati count swells 68% in four years

The number of crorepatis in India has increased by 68% during the past four years, the data released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday showed.

"The number of individual taxpayers disclosing income above Rs 1 crore had increased during Assessment Year 2014-15 and 2017-18 from 48,416 to 81,344, which translated into a growth of 68%," the finance ministry said.

Similarly, the total number of taxpayers (corporates, firms, Hindu undivided families among others) showing income of above Rs 1 crore has registered a sharp increase over the same period.

Taxpayers earning above Rs 1 crore per annum has risen to over 1.40 lakh in the country in the last four years, depicting a growth of about 60%, as per the latest figures.

The CBDT under the finance ministry also released the figures of income tax and direct taxes for a period of about four years.

The data also shows a growth of over 65% in the number of returns filed in the last four financial years from 3.79 crore in 2013-14 to 6.85 crore in 2017-18.

"Higher level of compliance, reduced legal procedures, lower tax slab along with various legislative and administrative measures have resulted in deepening the tax base," CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra said.

According to Chandra, "Demonetisation also played a big role in bringing more people under the tax net. The department tracked people who had deposited large sums in the banks and followed them up."

"About 2 crore SMS and e-mails were sent to taxpayers making them aware of their tax liabilities. This was followed up by visits by our officials," he said.

The share of direct tax in the total tax revenues has surpassed that of indirect tax.

"All these efforts have led to direct tax contributing over 52% to the total tax revenue during FY 2018-19," Chandra said.

The country reported the best direct tax to GDP ratio of close to 6% in the past 10 years. "The ratio of 5.98% in FY2017-18 is the best direct tax GDP ratio in the last 10 years," Chandra said.

The average tax paid by corporate taxpayers also increased from Rs 32.28 lakh in 2014-15 to Rs 49.50 lakh in 2017-18, a growth of 55%. Similarly, there is an increase of 26% in the average tax paid by individual taxpayers from Rs 46,377 to Rs 58,576 during the same period.

The number of salaried taxpayers has increased from 1.70 crore in 2014-15 to 2.33 crore in 2017-18, while non-salaried individual taxpayers rose from 1.95 crore to 2.33 crore during this period.

Commenting on the rise of tax payers in India since 2014, Sanjay Kumar, senior director at Deloitte, said,"Government has certainly prioritised tax return filing and tax compliance. The direct tax to GDP ratio has moved to 6%. But that is still low as compared to many Asean countries; Indonesia for example has 11.8%. On the widening of taxpayers, we are still below a general estimate that taxpayers' base should be about 10 lakh."

Deloitte's S P Singh attributed the increase in the number of tax returns to demonetisation, movement towards digital assessment and decrease in the number of cases being picked up for scrutiny and ease of getting refunds.

MONEY MATTERS

• 81,344 – Number of individual taxpayers disclosing income above Rs 1 crore
   
• Rs 4.89 lakh crore – Net direct tax collection in this fiscal so far
   
• 88,649 – taxpayers had disclosed income above Rs 1 crore in assessment year 2014-15
   
• 65% – spike in number of returns filed in the last four financial years to 6.85 crore 
   
• 42% – it forms of the full-year direct tax collection target of Rs 11.5 lakh crore for this fiscal 
   
• 37% – jump in number of salaried taxpayers to 2.33 crore in the last three years
   
• 55% – jump in average tax paid by corporate tax payers at Rs 49.95 lakh in last three years