Merely 1.7 per cent of the total population in India paid their income tax in the assessment year (AY) 2015-16, according to data released by the Income Tax department.
The data further revealed that just over 3 per cent of the 120 crore Indian population filed their tax returns.
While the number of income-tax return filers rose to 4.07 crore in the assessment year 2015-16 (FY 2014-2015) from 3.65 crore in the previous year, only 2.06 crore actually paid their tax as the others claimed income below taxable limits.
Last year, 3.65 crore who filed returns out of which 1.91 crore had paid income tax.
However, the total amount of income tax paid by individuals this year has declined to Rs. 1.88 lakh crore in AY 2015-16 from Rs. 1.91 lakh crore in AY 2014-15.
According to the official figures, maximum amount of 19,931 crore was collected from 2.80 crore tax filers who paid between Rs. 5.5 lakh to Rs. 9.5 lakh in taxes. Data shows that as many as 1.84 crore returns were filed for payment of income tax of less than Rs. 1.5 lakh or an average of Rs 24,000.
Out of the total 4.07 crore tax returns field in AY 2015-16, nearly to 82 lakh declared their income as zero or income less than Rs. 2.5 lakh. Currently, no income tax is levied on income up to Rs 2.5 lakh.
