The Myth of 5 communities paying 161% taxes in India
Government of India does not release or record taxation data based on religion. None of the ITR forms have a column of religion, neither does tax agencies release the info by religion.
In 1992, a Sikh author in New York Times claimed Sikhs to contribute 26% towards GDP of India. [1]
Based on religious and caste related clashes resulting from this, Marwari community also started claiming the exact same percentage of tax collections in 2011 [2]
The same was then picked up Sindhi community in 2015 [3] [4] who also started claiming 24% contribution to taxes paid in India by Sindhi.
Later on, in 2020, Jain community picked up the exact same numbers as posted by Marwari samaaj, and started claiming 24% tax contribution from Jain community, via a research paper in allresearchjournal [5], including the exact same numbers of urban property holders, stock brokers, etc. as claimed originally by Marwari samaaj [2] Below is the original Marwari Samaaj post (from 2011):-
Below is Jain's posting in research journals (from 2020):-
Coincidentally, the exact numbers of Gaushalas, property holding, etc. was copied as it is, from Marwari Samaaj by Jain Samaaj's posts.
Notice the exact same numbers in the two posts above, from 10 years apart.
Later on, Brahmin community in India also started claiming 60% tax contribution via Quora forums [6] Reality checks:
Fake news busting agencies (Logical Indian and Factly) have stepped in to this matter. And their team of 100 plus members, have decoded the stat and proved it to be false.
Their teams have checked in all reports from tax agencies and the methodology of income tax department and have debunked the claims of all communities [7] [8] [9] [10]
References [7] [8] [9] [10] cover this in detail and show all income tax reports. And methodologies.
Tax agencies have also been contacted on this, who have confirmed the same to be false.
Important findings:
1. References shared in the Jain documentation via allresearchjournal have been decoded that the information is taken from "jainswara" (a Jain forum), attached as an image here. And contains no economic backing.
2. They have verified that "The Hindu article" [11] or New York Times article [1], which claim Sikhs to contribute 26% and Jains to contribute 24% taxes are based on claims made by Sikh or Jain only. And has no economic backing.
Also, "the Hindu" never claims Jain community to pay 24% taxes. They only say, "Pushp Jain said that Jain pay 24% taxes". Meaning that they only reiterated what the Jain leader told the public.
i. 24% tax contribution from Jain would require a median income to be 57 lakhs among Jain, causing a tax collection of 16 lakh per individual and total tax collection to be: 22 lakh Jain in service * 16 lakh tax = 3.5 lakh crore (24%). Mathematically, this would mean at-least 11 lakh Jain to earn above 50 lakh per annum which is prohibited by government of India (as per tax agencies only 1.5 lakh people earn above 50 lakh).
ii. 33% tax contribution from Sikhs would require Punjab, Haryana and Delhi to contribute at-least 20% taxes which are contrary to government of India's reports that these 3 states contribute under 10% tax in India.
Reference:
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/14/opinion/l-for-sikh-independence-367792.html
[3] https://issuu.com/researchmarket19/docs/how_sindhi_s_became_the_fastest_gro
[4] https://www.facebook.com/SindhiSangatWorldwide/photos/a.369973016167/10156922638226168
[5] https://www.allresearchjournal.com/archives/2020/vol6issue3/PartD/6-3-83-338.pdf
[8] https://factly.in/no-sikhs-do-not-contribute-33-of-income-tax-in-india/
[9] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oc2MlnWHk3o
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