The finance ministry clarified that 91 lakh taxpayers were added during the financial year 2016-2017.
Highlights
- Arun Jailtey had last week cited jump in new taxpayers since notes ban
- Finance Ministry later said the figure was for financial year 2016-17
- Till April 2016, total number of taxpayers in the country was 5 crore
Union Minister Arun Jaitley cited a jump in the number of new taxpayers while discussing the effects of demonetisation last week. The figure quoted -- 91 lakh - was widely reported by the media as a jump since Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the notes ban on November 8. The finance ministry has now clarified that the figure was for the entire financial year of 2016-2017.
The Chairman of the CBDT (the Central Board of Direct Taxes) Sushil Chandra, was present at the media conference addressed by Mr Jaitley on the launch of Operation Clean Money. Yesterday, Meenakshi Goswami, Income Tax Commissioner and the official spokesperson of the CBDT, told NDTV that 91 lakh was the total number of new taxpayers enrolled in the financial year 2016-2017. Till April 2016, the total number of taxpayers in the country was 5 crore.
For the financial year 2014-15, finance ministry data shows an addition of 76 lakh new taxpayers. Two years down the line, the figure of 91 lakh, a 15-lakh increase, is also indicative of a steadily growing tax base. There is no publicly available data for financial year 2015-16.
Claiming a big success in detection of illegal money, tax officials said a total of Rs 24,044 crore of undisclosed income was detected during searches, surveys and seizures post-demonetisation.
But in 2013-14, searches and surveys led to the detection of Rs 1,01,181 crore -- nearly 4 times as much. Even considering Rs 24,044 crore is the figure for the last 6 months and not a full financial year, it is still considerably less.