It's a game of numbers.

An editorial in the Mint feels that "income tax payers are a hapless minority in India. Within this class is a sub-class of the salaried, the most oppressed." Within this sub-class is the sub-sub-class of officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) who enjoy royal perks and power in addition to enormous salaries. They get free healthcare for life and their families receive pensions after lifelong pensions for officers. In the 2018-19 budget speech the then Finance Minister revealed that "salary earners shelled out an average income tax of Rs 76,306 in 2017-19, three times the non-salaried taxpayer's mean outgo of Rs 25,753". Average figures mean nothing. Salaries are fixed and paid even when the employee is off sick or on vacation whereas the self-employed earn nothing when they are not working. The number of people filing income tax returns in 2018-19 increased 16% to 6.33 crore (63.3 million) but the number of income tax payers jumped 14% to 84.5 million. This is because of tax deduction at source (TDS), which is tax deducted by banks on interest earned on term deposits and taxes on dividends deducted before payment.  Many did not file tax returns possibly because these are old or sick people unable to claim refund on their taxes. Less than 3% of Indians paid income tax in assessment year (AY) 2018-19, wrote Bhaskaran and Sharma. They make the same lazy assumption that, "The government, therefore, needs to focus on bringing more high income earners into the tax net." Meaning that a large number of Indians are managing to hide large incomes. How is that possible when tax officials resort to extreme intimidation and harassment to meet targets? A target of 17.5% growth in collection of taxes has been set on tax officials despite nominal GDP growth expected to be 7.53%. Not only are tax officials ordered to meet targets but "Appellate commissioners are also involved in the effort to meet tax collection targets," wrote Gautam Nayak. "The worst part is that targets are set for each commissioner to launch prosecution against taxpayers and then being encouraged to opt for compounding of offences." Extortion and blackmail of taxpayers. Farmers pay no income tax even if they earn in millions, wrote Rohit Saran. Private sector taxpayers get no services for the taxes they pay. Indirect taxes are no better. The government has blocked Rs 400 billion on GST refunds for mismatch with filed returns. This apparently is proof of fraud. Small and medium industries in Coimbatore are dying because they have to pay GST as soon as they bill customers but receive payments after 90 days because of the slow economy. They borrow to pay tax. "Businessmen will never be sure what the next meeting of the GST council will unleash," N Rajadhyaksha. Keep taxes stable, stop tax terrorism and a portion of income tax should go to a national insurance scheme which will pay pensions and healthcare costs of income tax payers. Sadly, taxpayers are too few. They don't matter.