ITR filing doubles to 77.8 million in 10 years

The number of individuals filing income-tax returns more than doubled in the past 10 years to 77.8 million in 2022-23, helping direct tax-to-GDP ratio to climb to 6.11% from 5.62% during the same period, official data released on Tuesday showed.

The cost of tax collection fell to 0.51% of total collection in 2022-23 from 0.57% of total collection in 2013-14. It was as high as 1.36% of the total collections in 2000-01 but has steadily declined over the years, mainly on account of use of technology.

The total number of I-T returns filed in FY 2023 was 104.91% more than 38 million returns filed in FY 2014, as per the time series data released by the Central Board of Direct Taxes. This includes data on revised returns.


The number of income-tax payers rose to 93.7 million in FY23 from 52.6 million in FY14.

The CBDT defines 'taxpayer' as a person who either has filed a return of income for the relevant assessment year (AY) or in whose case tax has been deducted at source in the relevant financial year even if the taxpayer has not filed the return of income.

The tax deducted at source (TDS) emerged as the largest component of direct taxes at ₹8.17 lakh crore in FY23, almost double of ₹4.12 lakh crore in FY18.

In the last 10 years, the overall net direct tax collections rose 160.52% to ₹16.63 lakh crore in FY23 from ₹6.38 lakh crore in FY14.

States' performance

While most of the states posted growth in the number of tax collections in the past five years, Bihar was the only state that witnessed a decline in tax collections during this time at ₹6,845.32 in 2022-23 against ₹ 6,893.48 crore in 2017-18. Telangana witnessed the highest jump in collection of tax to ₹35,433 crore in FY23 from ₹6,676 crore in FY18.