Now Reading: India’s crorepati taxpayers quadruple to 576 in five years
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India’s crorepati taxpayers quadruple to 576 in five years
The number of Indians declaring an annual income of Rs 100 crore or more has jumped nearly four-fold in five years, from 142 in assessment year 2021-22 to 576 by 2025-26, the finance ministry told the Lok Sabha on 27 July 2026. The ministry, however, noted that there is no official definition of a billionaire in India and that the government stopped maintaining aggregate wealth data after the Wealth Tax Act was repealed in 2016.
The data, disclosed in response to a parliamentary question on rising inequality, shows a fluctuating but sharp upward trend: 301 in 2022-23, 284 in 2023-24, 415 in 2024-25, before peaking at 576. Separately, the ministry pointed to a falling Gini coefficient in both rural (0.266 to 0.237) and urban (0.314 to 0.284) areas between 2022-23 and 2023-24, claiming reduced consumption inequality. It also cited falling unemployment (3.6% in 2022 to 3.1% in 2025) and a 24.82-crore reduction in multidimensional poverty between 2013-14 and 2022-23, according to NITI Aayog.
To address inequality, the ministry highlighted its progressive income tax structure, tax deductions for hiring, and welfare schemes such as PM Awas Yojana, PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, and Ayushman Bharat. The data did not include wealth outside declared income, which the government said it no longer records centrally.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The information presented is sourced entirely from a parliamentary reply by the finance ministry, making it an official government account. The framing focuses on positive trends like the quadrupling of high-income earners, improvements in the Gini coefficient, falling unemployment, and reduced multidimensional poverty. It omits any independent verification or critical perspective, such as whether the narrowing consumption inequality might coexist with rising wealth concentration that the government admits it no longer tracks. For a balanced read, note that the decline in consumption inequality is derived from a government survey, while the surge in declared high incomes could reflect better compliance or more wealth in the economy. The key question this leaves unaddressed is whether the government's suite of welfare schemes and progressive tax is enough to offset the structural advantage this top income bracket has gained, and India's official poverty data audit will be the next crucial indicator.
Coverage: 1 source, 1 pro-government
Source: bazaar.businesstoday.in (pro government)
This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Methodology and corrections.
