‘Tax Payers Are Meaningless Minorities': Only 0.5% Of Voters Pay Income Tax, Says Ashneer Grover

In a nation where tax policies often dominate political discourse, former BharatPe MD Ashneer Grover on his social media platform X, formerly twitter, ignited a debate of the dynamics tax politics in India.

In a recent post shared by Grover, he added that a mere fraction of Indian voters shoulder the burden of income tax, raising questions about the weight of tax-related promises in political rhetoric.

According to Grover's analysis, out of the huge population of 140 crore people i.e 1.4 billion, only 8 crore individual file income tax returns. Among these, a mere portion i.e 2 crore taxpayers contribute directly to income tax, which only form a tiny minority in the country's electorate.

More interestingly, just 45 lakh taxpayers contribute or are responsible for the 80 per cent of the total income tac collected.

Grover X post reads:

"You need to understand ‘Tax Politics’ in India. 8/140 crore file IT Return. 2/140 crore Indians pay Income Tax. Only. 45 Lakh of them contribute 80% of this Income Tax. Total 97 crore voters. Do the maths - 0.5% of voters pay any meaningful Income Tax.

So you can say anything on tax in a political rally and get away with it - tax payers is the meaningless minority as far elections are concerned."

Netizens reactions

Many netizens responded to Grover's post by adding their further responses to the tax politics in India.

One of the X user, Neetu Khandelwala, whose X bio identifies as an investor as well, commented, "Government need to identify and bring high earners to proper taxation. Many people earn much higher in real life but they don't file IT return. We often hear about crorepati paanwala, chaatwala, chailwala etc. Bank transactions, Property transactions can become handly in identifying them."

"Not for inheritance tax. Billionaires never pay proper taxes because most can do tax planning. It will fall on Middle classes, otherwise it will collect zero Rs.," commented another X user named Anand Gupta.