17.9 million refunds, with interest.

"The Income Tax (I-T) department...said it has issued refunds worth Rs 1.62 lakh crore (Rs 1.62 trillion) to Rs 1.79 crore (17.9 million) taxpayers this fiscal," ET. Which works out to an average of Rs 90,500 per taxpayer. This would be about the median monthly salary of an I-T Inspector, which ranges from Rs 44,900 to Rs 142,400, SSC. "This includes 1.41 crore (14.1 million) refunds for 2020-21 fiscal amounting to Rs 27,111.40 crore (Rs 271.114 billion)." These refunds were pending since the last financial year and the I-T department would have had to pay interest at 0.5% per month or part of a month on each refund, tax guru. "This includes personal income tax refunds of Rs 57,754 crore (Rs 577.54 billion) issued to over 1.77 crore (17.7 million) entities," which works out to about Rs 40,000 per individual. The I-T department has about 46,000 officers (2016-17 estimate), wikipedia, each earning double of each refund every month. To calculate the refunds. "Nearly 5.89 crore (58.9 million) income tax returns for the 2020-21 fiscal (ended March 2021)have been filed on the new e-filing portal till December 31 deadline, the I-T department said," ET. In February 2021, "The number of taxpayers in India is reportedly 1.46 crore (14.6 million), as confirmed by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) in a tweet," yahoo. "CBDT further clarified that one crore (10 million) taxpayers reported income between the range of Rs 5-10 lakh (Rs 0.5-1million), while only 46 lakh (4.6 million) reported income over Rs 10 lakh." "Not surprisingly, 4% of the taxpayers pay 60% of the tax revenue generated." ""India's tax-to-GDP ratio steadily increased from approximately 14% to over 20% in 2021," said Prof Suranjali Tandon. France has a ratio of 30%. "In fact, if we control for India's per capita GDP, then the tax-to-GDP ratio for Indians is higher than its peers." This despite agricultural income being free of income tax. At $2,227, the per capita GDP of Bangladesh was $280 higher than that of India at $1,947 in 2020-21, News18. There are about 32 million Indians living abroad, the largest diaspora in the world, and every year 2.5 million migrate overseas, wikipedia. They are known as non-resident Indians or NRIs. Till 2020-21 NRIs were allowed to stay in India for up to 182 in a financial year without being liable to pay income tax. However, from 1 April 2020 any NRI earning more than Rs 1.5 million per year, which would be the vast majority, will be liable to pay income tax in India if her stay is longer than 120 days, ET. "Tax experts say that this has backfired as many rich Indians would rather take up citizenship elsewhere and save taxes they would have to pay in India," ET. "As many as 7,000 HNIs (high net-worth individuals) left India in 2019. In all, about 30,000 to 35,000 rich Indians would have left the country in the past five years or so." With so few people earning enough to pay income tax the government resorts to indirect taxes to fund its extravagance. Revenue from the good and services tax (GST) was Rs 1.30 trillion in December, ET. GST directly increases the cost of goods and services and adds to inflation. Since 1 January, GST has been increased from 5% to 12% on clothes and shoes, India Today. Tax collections will only increase if people become richer. But, taxes must be reduced to make people richer. Else they will run away.