Do Not Kill The Golden Goose

Corporate Tax contributed 46.47 per cent, and Personal Income Tax contributed 53.31 per cent of total direct tax collections in India in the FY 2023-24.¹ Total collection on account of direct taxes in the FY 2023-2024 was ₹19.60 lakh crores. Thus, we find that taxpayers, both corporate and non-corporate, are major contributors to the government exchequer. GST contributed ₹18.01 lakh crore for the FY 2023-2024².

1 https://incometaxindia.gov.in/Documents/Direct%20Tax%20Data/Final-Approved-Time-Series-Data-2023-24-English.pdf
2 https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2016802

There were 7.5 crore individual taxpayers for the AY 2023-2024.³ This shows that only 5 per cent of the population pays tax in India or files tax returns. Out of this, 87 per cent has returned income of less than ₹10 Lakhs. Fifty per cent of the total individual taxpayers are salaried class, of which 82 per cent have income less than ₹10 lakhs. This shows that the majority of the taxpayers belong to the middle class. Individual taxpayers, and especially the salaried class are the worst hit by inflation and taxes. Over and above income tax, they pay GST on their gross spending. GST should be reduced on items of mass consumption to give relief to people. There is no social security for a large number of private sector employees, and they are taxed at a