India's crorepati count up at 81,000; expands 68% in 3 years: CBDT

With the latest figures from the Income Tax Department, the millionaire club of India is growing. 

India's crorepati count up at 81,000; expands 68% in 3 years: CBDT 

In 2014-15, the number of persons declaring more than Rs 1 crore for the assessment year 2017-18 to 48,416 increased by 68% to 81,344. 

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The data released by the Direct Taxes Corporation, Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Monday showed that the tax-to-GDP ratio reached the highest level of 5.9% in the decade of the fiscal year 2011.

India's crorepati count up at 81,000; expands 68% in 3 years: CBDT 

If all the taxpayers are included, then the number of those earning more than Rs.1 crore per year has increased to 1.4 lakh, which has increased by 60% over the last four years.

In the current year, the department has received 5.8 crore tax returns against Rs 3.6 crore against the corresponding period of last financial year, which is a 61% increase.

 The Income Tax Department sent about 1.85 crore emails and SMS in January-March, this year people asked to file returns and pay some new taxpayers to tax on their tax history or to obtain their transactions.

The official said that in its efforts to widen and deepen the taxpayer base in the country, the CBDT has given to the Income Tax Department to add 1.25 crore new taxpayers till the end of the current financial year. Last year 1.06 crore new income tax assessors were added.

Foreign black money

The Income Tax Department has launched a major campaign to investigate the cases of illegal wealth and property abroad by Indians and many cases have been investigated in criminal offenses for the new anti-black money law.

 An official said that the department is investigating offshore bank deposits and purchase of properties by "thousands of Indians" in coordination with their foreign counterparts.

 CBDT president Sushil Chandra confirmed this move but did not extend in detail. In many cases, their transaction is explained to individuals or another category of taxpayers. These include high profile and prominent people and high net worth individuals.

Direct tax collection u

The official said that in the current year, the direct tax collection grew 15.7% year-on-year to Rs 4.89 lakh crore. It is more than 42% of the full year direct tax collection target of 11.5 lakh crore for the financial year ending March 31, 2019. 

The Department had released a refund of Rs. 2 crores for the last week's 1.09 lakh crore rupees. In the same period last year, the taxpayers were refunded of Rs 83,000 crore.