There has been a significant increase in the number of taxpayers earning more than Rs 5 lakh, while the count of those falling in the lowest income slab of Rs 0 to 5 lakh has fallen.
A total of 6.3 crore individuals paid tax and filed their returns in the financial year ended March 2021 (assessment year ended March 2022), according to government data provided in a response to a question raised by Trinamool MP Mahua Mitra.
The number of individual tax returns, however, has remained relatively consistent between 2018 and 2021. What has changed is their income.
Personal income tax paid in the fiscal 2020-21 stood at Rs 6.73 lakh crore, a jump of 43% over the previous year. That’s because these individuals made a much higher contribution to the exchequer.
The upsurge in tax collections can be attributed, in part, to the rise in the number of individuals earning over Rs 10 lakh. In FY21, the figure stood at 81 lakh, up nearly 50% from the previous year and nearly 67% from the fiscal ended March 2019.
The number of individual taxpayers earnings between Rs 5 lakh and 10 lakh saw a moderate increase. In contrast, the count of taxpayers falling under the Rs 0 to 5 lakh income category saw a decline of over 11% from the previous year and a 17% reduction from 2018-19.