I-T department had 5.17 crore assessees in FY'15: Govt

The number of assessees rose from 4.72 crore in 2012-13

The number of effective income tax assessees has risen to nearly 5.17 crore in 2014-15, from 4.72 crore in 2012-13, a year in which only 1% of India's population filed I-T returns, according to official data.

Income Tax department had over 4.72 crore "effective assessees", including people who filed ITRs, and who paid TDS but did not filed returns, in 2012-13. However, individuals who filed return of income for tax paid accounted for 1% of population that year.

In 2012-13, as much as Rs 2.10 lakh crore was garnered from TDS, as against total income tax collection of Rs 6.36 lakh crore.

The total number of effective assessees has risen from 4.72 crore in 2012-13 to 5.20 crore in 2013-14. In 2014-15, the provisional data stood at nearly 5.17 crore.

As regards filing income tax returns, a total of 2.87 crore individuals filed income tax returns for 2012-13, but 1.62 crore of them did not pay any tax.

This left the number of taxpayers who filed ITR at just about 1.25 crore which was close to one% of the country's total population of about 123 crore at that time.

The tax outgo was less than Rs 1.5 lakh for a vast majority of nearly 89% taxpayers (over 1.11 crore). Their average tax payable was just about Rs 21,000, while the collective amount stood at over Rs 23,000 crore. The three individuals in the top-bracket of Rs 100-500 crore paid a total tax of Rs 437 crore -- resulting in an average tax outgo of Rs 145.80 crore.

As part of a transparency drive, the government has made public direct tax data for last 15 years. Data for individuals has been published only for 2012-13 assessment year, which shows taxes for income in financial year ended March 31, 2012.

As many as 5,430 individuals paid income tax of over Rs 1 crore. Out of this, the tax range was Rs 1-5 crore for more than 5,000 individuals, resulting in a total outgo of Rs 8,907 crore.

As per the overall data, total income tax collections rose nine-fold to Rs 2.86 lakh crore in 2015-16, from Rs 31,764 crore in 2000-01. The data further showed that the bulk of individuals who filed returns for the assessment year 2012-13 earned an annual salary between Rs 5.5 lakh and Rs 9.5 lakh.

Over 20.23 lakh taxpayers earned Rs 5.5-9.5 lakh, while their cumulative salary earnings stood at Rs 1.40 lakh crore in the financial year 2011-12. Further 19.18 lakh individuals earned salary of Rs 2.5-3.5 lakh that year.

Six individuals fell in the high-end earning bracket of Rs 50-100 crore of salary income. In the salary range of Rs 1-5 crore, there were as many as 17,515 individuals.

Nearly 2.87 crore salary earners filed their I-T returns in assessment year 2012-13.