The number of individual taxpayers in the highest tax bracket surged by 25 percent in AY23 from AY22, the finance ministry data tabled in the Parliament showed, Business Line reported.
In a written response by Pankaj Chaudhary, Minister of State for Finance, in Lok Sabha, it was revealed that the number of individual taxpayers falling in the 30 percent tax slab, which was 48.40 lakh in Assessment Year 2021-22 (FY21), surged to 60.81 lakh in AY 2022-23 (FY22), registering a growth of over 25 percent, it said.
The total number of personal income tax payers in AY22 was 6.84 crore, of which 6.33 crore are individuals. For AY23, the total number is over 7.57 crore. The data on all the categories of taxpayers for AY23 have not been made public.
Under the old tax regime, individual taxpayers with aggregate income exceeding ₹10 lakh come under the 30 percent bracket.
However, in the new tax regime, those with more than ₹15 lakh aggregate income fall under the 30 percent slab. These limits are not applicable for non-resident Indians, senior citizens and super senior citizens.
Chaudhary also informed that efforts are on to widen the tax net which includes addition of new statements of financial transactions, nonfilers monitoring system e-campaign, risk management strategy, annual information systems and mandatory quoting of PAN and linking of PAN and Aadhaar.
Tax Compliance
The tax department has rolled out ‘Project Insight’ to strengthen the nonintrusive information driven approach to increasing tax compliance.
According to Chaudhary, the scope of TDS/TCS has been progressively expanded for widening the tax base by bringing several new transactions under the ambit of two mechanisms.
The Department has also signed memoranda of understanding (MoU) with Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) and SEBI to enable exchange of information and interagency cooperation to identify tax loopholes and widen the tax net and prevent revenue leakages.
