Mumbai, Jan 24: Just one unnamed taxpayer owed the government 11 per cent of income tax (Rs 21,870 crore) out of the total income tax for the assessment year 2014-15. The latest data available from the Income Tax department states that while one person owed 11 percent of the total income tax, three businessmen have declared their business incomes to exceed Rs 500 crore and two taxpayers have declared their long-term capital gains over Rs 500 crore. However, the names of these taxpayers are not made public.
The latest Income Tax department data also reveals that 58 percent of India’s wealth is owned by the richest 1 percent Indians whereas the wealth of 57 billionaires equals to the wealth of bottom 70 percent of India. Data also reveals that only 3.81 percent of Indians pay their income taxes.
The total number of individual taxpayers in India is around 36.5 million who have declared the taxable income of Rs 16.5 lakh and were liable to pay Rs 1.91 lakh crore as income tax. This is an increase of 23 percent and 37 percent respectively over the assessment year 2012-14.
The maximum tax payable (around Rs 41,964 crore) is in relation to the income below Rs 1,50,000 annually followed by the tax payable of Rs 17,926 crore in the tax slab of Rs 5,50,000 to Rs 9,50,000.
The collection of income tax increased nine times to Rs 2.9 lakh crore in 2015-16 compared to Rs 31,764 crore in 2000-01. The states of Maharashtra and Delhi account for 53 percent of all the direct taxes collected in the year 2015-16.
The Oxfam report indicates that only eight individuals, all men own as much wealth as the poorest half of the world’s population. The report also indicates that the wealth of the 1 percent richest people in the world amounts to USD 110tn (£60.88tn), or 65 times as much as the poorest half of the world.
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