The number of individuals reporting an income of Rs 100 crore or more has increased more than fourfold over the past five years, according to data presented by the Ministry of Finance in Parliament on Monday.
As per the official data, the number of individuals reporting a gross total income of Rs 100 crore or more in their Income-tax Returns (ITRs) rose from 142 in assessment year 2021-22 to 576 in assessment year 2025-26. This marks the first time that the number of such ultra-high-income individuals has crossed the 500 mark.
Responding to a question in Parliament on the impact of the increasing concentration of income and wealth on income inequality, investment, employment generation, and the total number of billionaires in India, Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said, “There is no statutory definition of the term ‘billionaire’ either under the Income-tax Act, 2025, or under the erstwhile Income-tax Act, 1961.”
However, he provided details of individuals who had reported a gross total income of at least Rs 100 crore in ITRs filed over the past five assessment years.
At the same time, Chaudhary emphasised that the government has undertaken several measures over the years to reduce income inequality. Citing data from the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24, he said the Gini coefficient for rural and urban areas stood at 0.237 and 0.284, respectively, down from 0.266 and 0.314 in 2022-23, indicating that the rural-urban gap is narrowing.
The Gini coefficient is a statistical measure of economic inequality that assesses how income or wealth is distributed across a population. It is measured on a scale of 0 to 1, where 0 denotes perfect equality and 1 denotes perfect inequality.
The minister also highlighted that labour markets have recovered beyond pre-Covid levels in both urban and rural areas. The unemployment rate for individuals aged 15 years and above declined from 3.6% in 2022 to 3.1% in 2025.
According to the World Inequality Report 2026, income inequality in India remains among the highest in the world, with the top 10% of earners accounting for 58% of national income, while the bottom 50% receive only 15%.
