If demonetisation’s impact on tax base has been below the high expectations, the goods and services tax (GST) seems to have done far better. As the comprehensive indirect tax has opened new channels of audit trails, crores of new taxpayers have turned up. According to an FE estimate, the number of income tax assessees (all categories including individuals and corporates) in FY18 could turn out to be 13.76 crore or thereabouts, up 66% over the previous year.
And the number of individual I-T assesees would be 12.9 crore, showing roughly the same level of annual increase as in the combined base.
