ITR filers rising, but 37% drop in taxpayers

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Most of the people who file income tax returns in the country are those who do not have any tax liability and during the last 4 years, there has been a huge decline of 37 percent in the number of income tax payers in the country. Replying to a question on income tax returns on Monday in Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said a large number of people filie return but have no tax liaility.

The data showed that during the financial year 2022-23, 7.40 crore people in the country had filed income tax returns and in that the tax liability of 5.16 crore people was nil, that is, only 2.24 crore people had any tax liability. If these figures are compared with the figures before the Corona period, then there has been a huge decline of 37 percent in the number of income tax payers. For the financial year 2019-20, a total of 6.47 crore income tax returns were filed across the country and in that there were 2.90 crore people whose tax liability was zero, that is, 3.57 crore people had tax liability during 2019-20.

Figures released by the government show that Maharashtra has the highest number of income tax returns filed in the country, during the financial year 2022-23, with 1.13 crore returns,  followed by Gujarat with 74.50 lakh returns and Uttar Pradesh with 71.65 lakh returns.

Apart from these, 48.48 lakh income tax returns were filed in Rajasthan, 45.90 lakh in Tamil Nadu, 45.56 lakh in West Bengal, 42.58 lakh in Karnataka, 37.06 lakh in Delhi and 36.09 lakh in Punjab. Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Tamil Nadu are ahead in the states where zero tax returns were the highest among the income tax returns filed.