One Person Owes 11% of India’s Total Pending Income Tax in 2014-15

The taxpayer owed the government Rs 21,870 crore for the assessment year 2014-15.

(Photo: Reuters)

An unnamed taxpayer owed the government Rs 21,870 crore for the assessment year 2014-15, which was 11 percent of income tax to be paid by all Indians, according to 2016 data, the latest available, from the Income Tax department.

While three individual taxpayers declared business income of over Rs 500 crore, two individual taxpayers declared long-term capital gains of over Rs 500 crore in 2014-15 (for the year 2013-14). The names of these taxpayers are not made public.

The richest 1 percent Indians own 58 percent of India’s wealth, and 57 billionaires have the same wealth as the bottom 70 percent of India, according to data published by Oxfam India, a think tank.

In comparison, the top 1 percent in the USA accounted for 19 percent of income and 38 percent of taxes paid, the US government data show. It is not possible to say what proportion of income and taxes are similarly paid by Indians because the government does not release such data.

The wealth of 388 people equalled that of the poorest half of the world’s population in 2010, and this has narrowed to only 62 in 2015, according to recent data from Oxfam, a global confederation of non-government organisations fighting poverty.

India had 36.5 million individual taxpayers who declared taxable income of Rs 16.5 lakh crore and were liable to pay Rs 1.91 lakh crore as income tax – an increase of 23 percent and 37 percent, respectively, over assessment year 2013-14.

In 2014-15, over 36 million Indians declared a salary income of nearly Rs 9.8 lakh crore ($144 billion), the equivalent of 7 percent of gross national income of Rs 134.2 lakh crore in 2015-16, followed by business income of Rs 5.6 lakh crore ($82 billion) and income from other sources at Rs 2.4 lakh crore ($35 billion).

The maximum tax payable (Rs 43,964 crore) was in relation to income below Rs 1,50,000 annually, followed by a tax payable of Rs 17,926 crore in the tax slab of Rs 5,50,000-Rs 9,50,000.

The tax liability of individuals, Hindu Undivided Families (HUF), companies and other entities in assessment year 2014-15 was Rs 446,719 crore, an increase of 13 percent from the previous year.

There were 64 taxpayers with a tax liability of over Rs 500 crore in 2014-15 with a total tax payable of Rs 1,13,068 crore, which was 25 percent of the total tax payable of Rs 446,719 crore.

The collection of income tax (including securities transaction tax) increased nine times to Rs 2.9 lakh crore in 2015-16 from Rs 31,764 crore in 2000-01, Income Tax department data show.

Just two states – Maharashtra and Delhi – accounted for 53 percent of all direct taxes collected in 2015-16, IndiaSpend reported in May 2016.