How many Indians earn more than Rs 10 lakh a year? The answer is 81 lakh in FY21, according to a Lok Sabha reply filed today. In FY15 it was just 22.5 lakh, which implies growth of almost 4x in 6 years. The highest tax bracket kicks in at this level (under old tax regime). #tax 
The number of people in the 5-10 lakh bracket is up from 53.3 lakh in FY15 to 1.4 crore - a growth of almost 3 times. The total number of taxpayers in India has also grown from 4 crore in FY15 to 6.33 crore in FY 21, but this is much slower than the growth in higher tax brackets.
Inequality or growth? I take it positively. More people are migrating from the lowest tax bracket to higher brackets than are being added in the lowest bracket. The great Indian middle class is expanding. A long way to go, but today's data should give us some cheer.
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