New Delhi, Oct 11 (IANS): In what suggests growing inequality in the society with the rich getting richer, the total number of individual taxpayers filing more than Rs 1 crore income grew by 20 per cent in assessment year (AY) 2018-19 to 97,689.

The total number of individual taxpayers filing returns with taxable income of more than Rs 1 crore was 81,344 in assessment year 2017-18, as per the time-series data released by Income Tax (I-T) department.

In AY 2018-19, the total number of salaried individuals reporting above Rs 1 crore income stood at 49,128, registering a growth of 18.50 per cent over AY 2017-18.

The assessment year of 2018-19 relates to financial year 2017-18. The rise in crorepati taxpayers clearly show concentration of wealth in few although in a country of 130 crore people, the number is a minuscule fraction.

The sharp increase in the number of crorepati taxpayers has come despite slowing economy and reports of stagnancy in salaries. Some of the tax experts attributed the rise in crorepati taxpayers to demonetisation and other measures to curb black money but some of the counsultants dismissed it.

Ever since demonetisation and a crack down on black money, more and more people have been filing income tax returns declaring their taxable income.

"This is a clear dual impact of demonetisation and implementation of GST," said Vivek Jalan, Partner and Co-founder at Tax Connect.

The number of total income taxpayers across various categories such as firm, company and HUF increased by 14 per cent in AY 2018-19 to 8.45 crore from 7.42 crore a year ago.