According to a list of income-tax paying states released by the Central Board of Direct Taxation (CBDT), Maharashtra is the top income tax payer in the country. The state alone pays more tax than the combined tax paid by the next four states in the list. A large number of companies in Maharashtra is being cited as the reason for top income tax collection there.
The list also reveals some other interesting facts about income tax collection in India. According to the CBDT data, half of the total income tax of the country comes from Maharashtra and Delhi states. Delhi, same as Maharashtra, hosts many top companies, which explains the high-income tax collection rate.
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While Maharashtra stands at the top of the list with 38.3% of the total tax collected, Delhi is at the second place with 13.7% contribution, followed by Karnataka (10.1%), Tamil Nadu (6.7%), and Gujarat (4.5%).
The stats revealed by the CBDT show that North-East states of the country grew more in terms of tax collection as compared to the remaining states in the Financial Year 2017-18. Mizoram registered the highest growth of 41%, followed by Nagaland (32.1%), Sikkim (26%), Tripura (16.7%), and Meghalaya (12.7%).
Another interesting fact that was unveiled by the report is that the direct tax is contributing 52.3% of the overall income in 2017-18, as against 36.3% contribution in 2000-01.
The total number of ITR filers also increased by 65%, from 3.3 crores in 2013-14 to 5.2 crore in 2017-18. On the other hand, the number of taxpayers increased by 60% to 1,40,139. At the same time, the number of individual taxpayers with income of over Rs 1 crore also increased from 48,416 to 81,344.
Ove 2 crore individuals who file ITR do not pay any tax. On the contrary, there are over 2 crore people who pay tax but do not file ITR. There are 4 individuals who pay more than Rs 100 crore, each, in income tax. Around 93% individual taxpayers pay less than Rs 1.5 lakh annually in income tax.
As one can see from the above stats, the income tax collection data has both positive and negative aspects. While some states have registered tremendous growth in the past years, there are others which are still backward in the economy. Most of the income of the country is earned by the top 10-15% individuals while a big part is still ineligible to pay any income tax.
