Taxing only for us.

"In 2021-22, there were 20.9 million - or just over 2 crore - (income) taxpayers." That was just 2.2% of the 943.5 million total population, but, "there was a near four-fold increase in the amount of tax collected. From Rs 1.1 trillion in 2012-13, it touched Rs 4.3 trillion in 2021-22." TOI. The number of income tax payers increased to a total of 36 million but fell sharply to 19 million when the tax threshold was increased to Rs 500,000 in the interim budget of 2019-20, rising to 21 million in 2021-22. "Number of Indians who filed income tax returns rose 51%." The number of people who filed tax returns but paid no tax increased to 41 million and yet total tax collections rose by 7%. But the taxpayer gets nothing in return - no "public education, public health, potable water and uninterrupted power", because such a small number have no voting power. Politicians use tax money to buy votes with freebies, wrote Rohit Saran. Saran is talking about the private sector. Government officials, on the other hand, enjoy a princely lifestyle, complete with huge bungalows, chauffeur driven cars (Byju's), first class travel, lifetime free healthcare through the Central Government Health Scheme (CGHS) and an enviable pension for life which is passed on to the spouse in the event of death of the pensioner (pensionerportal.gov.in). "The provisional figures of Direct Tax collections for the Financial year 2023-24 (FY24) (as on 17.12.2023) show that Net collections are at Rs 13,70,388 crore (Rs 13.70 trillion), compared to Rs 11,35,754 crore (Rs 11.36 trillion) in the corresponding period of the preceding Financial Year (i.e. FY 2022-23), representing an increase of 20.66%." incometax india.gov.in. Gross tax collections increased 17.01% to Rs 15.96 trillion from Rs 13.64 trillion, of which the corporate tax component was Rs 7.90 trillion while personal income tax contributed Rs 8.03 trillion. So around 22 million individuals paid more tax than all the companies combined. "Individual tax collections in India have surged by a whopping 76% between 2018-19 and 2022-23. But, critically, the corporate sector share in that tax collected has inched by only a fraction, just 24.45%." Because the corporate tax rate was reduced from 30% to 22% in 2019. To compensate, excise duties on petrol, diesel and cooking gas were raised. Revenue from these rose 277%  from Rs 990 billion in 2014-15 to Rs 3.73 trillion in 2020-21. Petrol prices rose 79% while diesel rose by 101% in the same period. The Wire. Not only do the poor have to pay higher to buy fuel but the higher prices have raised the cost of transport of all goods, including food. In nine financial years, starting from 2014-15, when Mr Modi was first elected prime minister, banks have written off Rs 14.56 trillion in bad loans, of which Rs 7.41 trillion belonged to large industries and services. BT. Not only are we paying higher taxes, the super-rich have benefited by defaulting on bank loans. It's taxing for us.