Thanks to the increased transparency through digitisation and also efforts to get hold of the tax evaders, the number of income taxpayers seems to be finally growing in a significant manner after hovering around 3 crore for quite some time.

Thanks to the increased transparency through digitisation and also efforts to get hold of the tax evaders, the number of income taxpayers seems to be finally growing in a significant manner after hovering around 3 crore for quite some time.

According to the latest income tax data released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes for FY13 (AY14) and FY14 (AY15), the number of income tax returns filed between FY12 and FY14 has increased by about 79 lakh to cross 3.91 crore.

While the number of income tax returns filed by the firms went up from 8.59 lakh to 9.19 lakh, company returns increased from 5.81 lakh to 7.01 lakh—in the case of individuals, it has jumped from 2.89 cr for FY12 to 3.65 cr for FY14.

This may see further improvement when the data for FY15 and FY16 is released. But going ahead, the taxman will have to continue with its expansion of the application of digital tools in its operations for better results. The govt also needs to look at increasing the Rs 10 lakh limit for application of the top tax rate of 30%.