Share of personal income tax and indirect tax shows increase

Over the last week, during the election campaign, the Congress’ manifesto and the party’s emphasis on social justice and welfare were suddenly thrust into the limelight. Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to give the Congress’ demand for a caste census and its plans to study distribution of surplus government land to the poor, among others, a communal turn. The Congress defended its manifesto saying the rising wealth inequality in the country needs to be addressed and dismissed Mr. Modi’s claims that its plans intended to favour a particular religious group. In the midst of this political controversy, the chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, Sam Pitroda, floated the idea of an inheritance tax, which is not in place in India and is also not mentioned in the Congress’ manifesto.

Almost concurrently, as this political debate was playing out, the Finance Ministry released provisional data that showed an uptick in net tax collections. This is mostly driven by an increase in personal income tax and securities transaction tax collections. On the other hand, collections from net corporate taxes have reduced marginally. The data also show that revenues from personal income tax and securities transaction tax grew at almost double the pace compared to revenues from corporate taxes last year.

We look at some numbers to provide context to the ongoing debate and the recent release of tax data.

Chart 1 | the chart shows corporate tax and personal income tax as a share of gross tax revenue, as of February every year.

Chart appears incomplete? Click to remove AMP mode

As can be seen from the chart, the share of corporate tax has been on a decreasing trend, while that of personal income tax has been increasing. As of February 2024, the gap between the two tax shares further increased, with income tax forming 28% of the gross tax — a new peak. The sharp fall in corporate tax after FY19 can be attributed to the deep corporate tax cuts introduced by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in September 2019.

The data also show that the share of direct taxes has been decreasing, while that of indirect taxes has been increasing. Direct taxes, which include taxes levied directly on the incomes of corporations and individuals, are said to be “progressive” because those who earn less are taxed less and vice-versa. On the other hand, indirect taxes, which include union excise duties and the Goods and Services Tax are considered “regressive” as all consumers, regardless of their income levels, pay the same amount.

Chart 2 | The chart shows the share of direct and indirect taxes in the combined tax revenue receipts of the Centre and the States across years.

As can be seen from the chart, the share of indirect taxes, which had been falling steadily since the 1980s, has increased in the past decade. On the other hand, the share of direct taxes, which had been increasing, has consistently recorded a downturn in recent years.

Chart 3 | The chart shows the annual income bracket-wise share in total income tax returns filed (blue) and the share in total amount of income tax paid (red). Figures in %

Importantly, Chart 3 shows that a bulk of those who file personal income tax earn an annual income of ₹1 lakh-₹5 lakh. Richer individuals who earn more than ₹50 lakh are few and far between.

Moreover, a comparison with BRICS economies, for which data are available, shows that the effective personal income tax rate in India is among the highest (Chart 4).

Chart 4 | The chart compares the effective personal income tax rate in India with other BRICS countries which had data. 

Note: In case a country had two tax regimes, the highest effective tax rate was considered for comparison

Put together, the data show that poorer citizens and those in the middle-class category are increasingly shouldering a higher share of the tax burden. This is due to the combination of the rising share of personal income tax and indirect taxes in total revenue.

Rachita Rabboni is interning with The Hindu Data Team

Source: Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, Controller General of Accounts, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC)

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Raisen, Madhya Pradesh:

Madhya Pradesh’s former Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has taken a jibe at Sam Pitroda, who heads the Congress’s overseas chapter over his remarks on inheritance tax and said that India’s culture, tradition, and moral values are not of America.

Addressing a public rally in Raisen, Shivraj Singh Chouhan slammed Sam Pitroda for comparing India with America and said, “In a country like America, there is a provision that after death, the government (US) takes away 55% of the property. However, Sam Pitroda, this is not America, it’s India. India’s culture, tradition, and moral values are not of America. India is India.”

Earlier, emphasising the need for policy toward wealth redistribution, Sam Pitroda spoke about the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in America and said these are issues that will need to be discussed.

“In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has 100 million USD worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer probably 45 per cent to his children, 55 per cent is grabbed by the government. That’s an interesting law. It says you in your generation made wealth and you are leaving now, you must leave your wealth for the public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair,” Sam Pitroda had said.

“In India, you don’t have that. If somebody is worth 10 billion and he dies, his children get 10 billion and the public gets nothing…So these are the kinds of issues people will have to debate and discuss. When we talk about redistributing wealth, we are talking about new policies and new programs that are in the interest of the people and not in the interest of the super-rich only,” he had further said.

Criticising Congress, Shivraj Singh Chouhan said, “Be it farmers or the poor people, they also save money so that after their death, they can give something to their children. But the Congress wants to end this tradition.”

Shivraj Chouhan added further, “This inheritance tax was in imposition earlier as well, but due to people’s pressure, Congress abolished it… Maybe Rajiv Gandhi wanted to get the property of Indira Gandhi, and so he abolished it. The party has to make its intention clear before the nation. Congress is not on India’s path. It is on a dangerous path.”

In India, the concept of levying tax on inheritance does not exist as of now. In fact, the Inheritance or Estate Tax was abolished with effect from 1985.

Shivraj Chouhan also slammed the Congress party for conducting caste-based census. “On one hand, they talk about imposing inheritance tax, on the other hand, they talk about caste-based census… In how many parts do you want to divide the nation and society?… There are dangerous intentions lying behind… and those intentions are dividing the country based on caste… The country will never accept this, the people of the nation will never accept this,” he said.
 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)