More than two-third of income tax return (ITR) filers have zero tax liability, reported Business Line, citing data presented by the finance ministry.
Data also showed that the number of filers has gone up to 7.40 crore at the end of FY23 from 6.48 crore in FY20. Maharashtra leads the race in the number of return filers followed by Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, it said.
Data presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha showed that over 7.40 crore returns were filed in FY23, out of which, over 5.16 crore or around 70 percent were with zero tax liability, said the report.
Similarly, in FY22, the number of return filers and returns with zero tax liability were 6.94 crore and 5.05 crore (72 percent respectively), it added.
As per the rule, it is mandatory to file an ITR if your annual income is higher than ₹2.5 lakh ( ₹3 lakh for 60-80 years and ₹5 lakh for those above 80).
“There has been a 6.18 per cent increase in the number of persons filing returns in FY23 compared with FY22,” Sitharaman was quoted as saying in the report.
Further, the report said she listed various reasons for the increase. “These include expansion of scope of TDS/TCS such as huge cash withdrawals, foreign remittances, purchase of luxury cars, ecommerce participants, sale of goods, acquisition of immovable of property, purchase of overseas tour programme, transfer of virtual digital assets, net winnings from online games and interest on listed debentures paid to the resident,” it said.
Meanwhile, officials said that the Central Action Plan for FY24 has set the target for adding new filers at 10 percent (of the filer base at the end of 2022-23) compared with 10.6 percent achieved in FY20, 10.18 percent in FY21 and 8 percent in FY22, the report said.
