Do you know how many Indians pay Taxes and how much?
You would be surprised with some of the numbers. According to the report released by Indian Finance Ministry, estimated number of taxpayers for financial year 2011-12 stands at just 3.24 Crore people. That means, less than 3 people in 100 pay taxes
Out of these 3.25 Crore people, 89% pay taxes in the tax slab of 0 – 5 Lakh rupees, while on the other end of spectrum, only 1.3% of all tax payers have income about 20 Lakh!
Number of Tax Payers in India & their Slabs
| Slab | Number (in lakhs) | Percentage of taxpayers |
| 0-5 lakh | 288.44 | 89.00% |
| 5-10 lakh | 17.88 | 5.50% |
| 10-20 lakh | 13.78 | 4.30% |
| >20 lakh | 4.06 | 1.30% |
The graph clearly shows the inequality in the earnings of Indian people – Imagine, in a country of 120+ crore people, only 4 lakh people earn above 20 lakh rupees a month.
Now, if you consider that many cheat when it comes to taxes, even then the numbers are so skewed that it is mind-boggling.
This next graph will show you further how much wealth is concentrated amongst only a miniscule few!
Tax Collection by Tax Slabs
| Slab | (Rs. in crore) | Percentage of tax collected |
| 0-5 lakh | 15,010 | 10.10% |
| 5-10 lakh | 21,976 | 14.80% |
| 10-20 lakh | 17,858 | 12.10% |
| >20 lakh | 93,229 | 63.00% |
The biggest surprise for me was – although, only 1.3% of all tax-payers earn more than 20 lakhs in India, they account for a whooping 63% of all the taxes collected by Indian Government. So 4.6 lakh Indians pay a total of 93,229 crore rupees of tax. That comes to an average of roughly 23 lakh per person!
Although, I was aware of this situation to a certain extent, after looking at the numbers in the report, I was taken aback by amount of inequality we have in India!
Would love to hear your comments on this!
[Via]