On 12th February, 2020 PM Modi made a pertinent statement that of a total population of 130 crore Indians, only 1.5 crore pay income tax!
He was civil enough to increase the number because the next day the CBDT tweeted that only about 1.46 crore individual are liable to pay tax! The CBDT informed that during financial year 2018-19, 5.78 crore individuals filed tax returns and of these 1.03 crore showed income below Rs. 2.5 lakh and 3.29 crore individuals had income between Rs 2.5 and 5 lakh.
This means 4.32 crore persons with income up to Rs. 5 lakhs were exempted (as per the budget of 2019) from paying taxes for the following years.
Only 3.16 lakh individual taxpayers disclosed income more than Rs 50 lakh and 8,600 tax payers disclosed income above Rs 5 crore. About 2,200 doctors, CAs, lawyers, and other professionals had disclosed annual income of more than Rs 1 crore.
From the above data, it is seen that a miniscule number of Indians pay taxes. Ironically, the remaining 98% crib about inefficiency in government executed works, absence or defects in infrastructure, corruption, and other issues.
The government needs to come down hard on those avoiding to pay taxes such as prominent persons and establishments.
