Around 5.5 crore income taxpayers may have opted for the new tax regime for the ongoing financial year, according to revenue department’s preliminary estimates, reported Business Standard.
Most of these taxpayers, according to a senior government official, have a taxable income of up to ₹7 lakh. The Centre overhauled the new tax regime in the 2023-24 Budget, making it relatively attractive.
The new regime, which seeks to eliminate specific tax deductions and exemptions but offers a lower rate of taxation, struggled to gain traction since its introduction in the financial year 2020-21.
“We don’t see a reason why 55 million won’t shift to the new tax regime. Most young taxpayers, earning around ₹7.5-8 lakh, or even up to ₹10 lakh prefer income tax filing to be flexible yet straightforward,” said the official.
According to the I-T department’s data for FY23, 48.4 million taxpayers had a taxable income up to ₹5 lakh, over 11.2 million had a taxable income of in the range of ₹5 lakh- ₹10 lakh, 4.7 million had a taxable income between ₹10 lakh and ₹20 lakh.
As many as 2 million fell in the income group category of ₹20 lakh- ₹50 lakh, while 380,000 earned between ₹50 lakh and ₹1 crore. There were only 260,000 taxpayers in the above ₹1 crore category.
The number of income-tax returns (ITR) filed touched an all-time high of 67.7 million in AY 2023-24 — 16 per cent more than the total ITRs filed (58.3 crore) a year ago.
The number of tax filing by the end of FY23, however, was 78 million. This financial year, too, the number of tax filing is expected to go up. The department said that it received nearly 5.37 million ITRs from first-time filers.
