New Delhi: India has just 24.4 lakh tax payers who declared an annual income of over Rs 10 lakh yet 25 lakh new cars, including 35,000 luxury cars, are being bought every year for last five years, a top official said.

A nation of over 125 crore people had only 3.65 crore individuals filing their tax returns in the assessment year 2014-15, the official said alluding to a huge number of individuals being outside the tax net. “Of the 3.65 crore individuals (filing returns in assessment year 2014-15), there were only 5.5 lakh people who paid income tax of more than R5 lakh and accounted for 57 per cent of the total tax kitty. This essentially means that only 1.5 per cent of those filing tax returns (3.65 crore) are contributing to 57 per cent of tax kitty,” the official said.