123Pune.com

PUNE: Pune, the emerging IT hub of India, now boasts of having at least 16,000 millionaires. If the statistics collated by the income tax department are indeed accurate, then 15% of the country’s taxpayers earning over Rs 10 lakh a year are in Pune.

The number of taxpayers in the city with a taxable income of over Rs 10 lakh a year touched 16,000 in FY07 compared to 12,000 in FY06. The 33% growth is being attributed largely to a surge in the salaries of employees at the middle and top levels, especially in the IT sector.

Santosh Datta, chief commissioner, income tax, said the significant increase in the number of millionaires was an indicator of the region’s growth. “Pune today is what Bangalore was some eight years ago. The city has tremendous potential for further growth but for the infrastructure and I hope the city fathers pay more attention to developing infrastructure,” he said.

At the all India level, the number of taxpayers with a taxable income of over Rs 10 lakh hovered at around 70,000 a couple of years ago. It is estimated to have crossed around 1,10,000 now. However, even this is reckoned to be on the lower side, if one goes by the spending and investment trends. All the same, going by the statistics compiled by Pune tax officials, the city accounts for at least 15% of high networth individuals (HNI) in the country.

The Pune Municipal Corporation’s Environmental Status Report for 2005-06, released last year, estimated the city’s per capita domestic product at around Rs 46,000 — 50% higher than the country’s per capita income. Of course, the number of millionaires are just a minuscule of the city’s population of over 4.5 million.

The total number of assesses — those filing income tax returns in the Pune region — are around 24.85 lakhs. Income tax collections grew by a robust 38% in FY07 to top Rs 4,800 crore, said Mr Datta on Tuesday. The targets will be more ambitious this fiscal. An indication to this effect was given by Union finance minister P Chidambaram during his interaction with I-T chief commissioners on Tuesday through video conferencing.

The internal zonal targets and the strategy to shore up collections and widen the tax base will be outlined at the chief commissioners’ conference to be held this year. Right now, there are over 3.5 crore taxpayers in the country.

Source: Economic Times