Fewer billionaires in the 100-crore club
A total of 77 individuals had disclosed a gross total income of more than Rs 100 crore (one billion rupees) in a year in the income tax return filed
The finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a written reply to Rajya Sabha informed that the number of billionaires in India has come down to 136 in 2020-21 from 141 in 2019-20. The information is sourced from the gross total income declared by the individuals in the income tax return.
A total of 77 individuals had disclosed a gross total income of more than Rs 100 crore (one billion rupees) in a year in their income tax return filed with the Income Tax Department during 2018-19 stood, Sitharman said as per the written reply.
“As per the information available with Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), there is no legislative or administrative definition of the term billionaire under direct taxes. Wealth tax has been abolished with effect from 01.04.2016 and, therefore, CBDT does not any more capture information about complete wealth of an individual taxpayer,” she added further.
Poverty estimates
The finance minister also shared the official poverty numbers. She said that as per the poverty estimates following the extant Tendulkar Committee methodology, the number of persons living below the poverty line in India was estimated as 27 crores (21.9%) in 2011-12.
EPFO subscriber base at par
The minister also said that as per monthly payroll data from the ministry of statistics and programme implementation regarding employment in the formal sector, the cumulative net payroll addition to the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) subscriber base stood at 77.08 lakh in 2020-2021, almost at par with previous year base of 78.58 lakh.