The number of taxpayers declaring Rs 100 crore income or more in their ITR reporting has seen a more than four-fold growth in the last four assessment years, rising from 138 in AY 2021-22 to 576 in AY 2025-26.
Key Highlights
- Individuals declearing gross income above Rs 100 crore in their ITR reporting increased to 576 between AY 2021-22 and AY 2025-26.
- Government said no legal definition of billionaire exists and cited lower inequality, unemployment and poverty indicators nationwide.
As per official data presented in Parliament, there were 142 taxpayers with income above Rs 100 crore during AY 2021-22. The figure more than doubled to 301 in AY 2022-23, dipped slightly to 284 in AY 2023-24, before climbing to 415 in AY 2024-25 and reaching 576 in AY 2025-26.
The information shows an increase in the number of super-rich individuals filing income tax returns over the past few years, but the government said it was not necessarily a sign of becoming a billionaire.
Government Says No Official Data on Billionaires' Wealth
The Finance Ministry said it does not keep records of the total wealth of the billionaires in the country when asked about the total wealth of these billionaires in India. The government said the Wealth-tax Act, 1957, has been scrapped from April 1, 2016, thereby doing away with the need to collect or keep any records of the total wealth of a taxpayer.
Responding to concerns about growing inequality of income and wealth, the ministry presented several economic indicators that indicated that the level of inequality has eased over the past few years.
At both rural and urban areas, the Gini coefficient went down, with the rural area's dropping from 0.266 to 0.237 and the urban area's from 0.314 to 0.284, which shows that there is a lesser difference between the rural and urban areas in terms of income inequality. The greater the Gini, the closer to zero it will be.The closer to zero, the more equal it is, the closer to one, the more inequal.
Also Read: Income Tax & Office Changes April 1, 2026: What It Means for You
Employment & Poverty Indicators Show Improvement
The government also highlighted improvements in employment and poverty indicators to support its claim of more inclusive economic growth.
The labor markets have bounced back in both urban and rural areas and are much larger than they were pre-pandemic, according to the data from the Annual Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS). The unemployment rate of 15 years-old and above fell from 3.6% in 2022 to 3.1% in 2025.
According to National Multidimensional Poverty Index of NITI Aayog, multidimensional poverty fell from 24.85% in 2015-16 to 14.96% in 2019-21, which lifted almost 135 million people out of poverty.
In the next discussion paper released by the NITI Aayog, the figure came down further to 11.28% of multidimensional poverty in 2022-23, which means that around 248.2 million people had been lifted out of poverty over the span of 2013-14 to 2022-23.
The Finance Ministry also launched steps to curb income disparity and create job opportunities. These include a progressive income tax system, increased public expenditure on welfare schemes and tax breaks for businesses who provide jobs. Section 146 of the Income-tax Act, 2025 has announced eligible businesses can avail 30% deduction on additional expenses incurred in hiring eligible new employees for three years, as it had been announced earlier under Section 80JJAA of Income-tax Act, 1961.
