Crorepati taxpayers up 68 per cent in 3 years

​New Delhi: India is now home to 81,000 individuals with disclosed income of above Rs 1 crore per annum, with this 'crorepati club' expanding by over two-third in last three years, the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) data showed on Monday. 

Releasing key statistics of income tax and direct taxes, the policy-making body of the IT department said the total number of crorepati taxpayers, which includes corporates, firms, Hindu Undivided Families (HUFs) and individuals, has also seen a growth of about 60 per cent during the same time period. 

"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 three-year horizon. While 88,649 taxpayers had disclosed income above Rs 1 crore in assessment year 2014-15, the figure was 1,40,139 for AY 2017-18, which is a growth of about 60 per cent," the CBDT said. 

Similarly, the number of "individual" taxpayers disclosing income above Rs 1 crore had increased during the same period from 48,416 to 81,344, which translated into a growth of 68 per cent. 

The latest figures take into account a time period of three years as assessment year 2014-15 has been taken as the base year, a senior official explained. CBDT Chairman Sushil Chandra said these numbers were a result of the Income Tax Department (ITD) putting in a number of legislative, administrative, informative and enforcement efforts over the last few years to educate the taxpayers for paying their due taxes.  He said the department has ushered in a number of technology-enabled non-intrusive methods to check tax evasion and is committed to "widen and deepen" the tax base in the country further. 

The latest CBDT data also showed that a growth of more than 80 per cent 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. 

Meanwhile, the net direct tax collection in the country grew by 15.7 per cent on year-on-year basis to reach Rs 4.89 lakh crore in the current fiscal till third week of October, a senior official on Monday quoting from the latest data.

This marks over 42 per cent of the full-year direct tax collection target of Rs 11.5 lakh crore for the fiscal ending March 31, 2019. The CBDT official also the income tax department issued about 2 crore refunds for an amount of about Rs 1.09 lakh crore, till last week.