Billionaire club growing: More than 500 Indians earned over Rs 100 crore in FY25
With no official measure of incomes in India, researchers rely on Income Tax return statistics. However, the statistics ministry is currently conducting the first-ever National Household Income Survey.
The number of individuals who reported a gross total income of at least Rs 100 crore crossed 500 in Assessment Year 2025-26, up 39% from the previous year, the Ministry of Finance said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The finance ministry data showed the number of rupee billionaires as per their income has quadrupled in four years to 576 from 142 in AY 2021-22.
Assessment Year refers to the 12 months after the year in which income is earned, or the financial year. As such, AY 2025-26 is 2024-25, or April 2024-March 2025.
One billion is equal to 100 crore.
“There is no statutory definition of the term ‘billionaire’ either under the Income-tax Act, 2025 or under the erstwhile Income-tax Act, 1961,” Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in response to a question by Congress Member of Parliament Murari Lal Meena asking if the government is aware that there has been a significant increase in the number of billionaires in the country.
Chaudhary went on to provide details of the number of individuals who had reported gross total income of at least Rs 100 crore in the Income-tax Returns (ITRs) filed for the last five Assessment Years.
Usually, the government releases these figures as part of its income tax return statistics. The last year for which data is available is AY 2023-24. This was released in July 2024.
There is no official measure of incomes in India, with researchers relying on Income Tax return statistics, released by the finance ministry with a lag. However, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is currently conducting the first-ever National Household Income Survey. Started in April, the survey will end in March 2027, with the results expected to take a few more months to be processed before their release. Latest GDP data shows that India’s per capita gross national income in 2025-26 was Rs 2.41 lakh in current prices, up 8% from 2024-25.
In addition to measuring household income, the maiden income survey is supposed to also assess the impact of adoption of technology on wages.
According to Forbes, India has 229 ‘dollar billionaires’ as per their net worth. Since one US dollar is equal to around 96 rupees, dollar billionaires have a net worth of at least Rs 9,600 crore. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – also based on net worth, not annual income – estimates there are 23 Indians in the world’s richest 500 people.
Inequality in India
In his answer in Lok Sabha on Monday, Pankaj Chaudhary said the government does not maintain data on aggregate wealth of taxpayers. Further, in response to Meena’s question if the government has conducted any study on the impact of the increasing concentration of income and wealth on income inequality, investment, employment generation, and inclusive economic growth, Chaudhary said data from the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey for 2023-24 (August-July) showed that the Gini coefficient for rural and urban areas had declined to 0.237 and 0.284, respectively. This, he said, was indicative of a narrowing rural-urban gap.
The Gini coefficient is the most commonly-used measure of inequality.
The MoS in the finance ministry added that India’s labour market had recovered after the Covid pandemic, the unemployment rate for those aged 15 years and above had decreased to 3.1% in 2025 as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey, and the government had taken several measures to reduce income and wealth inequality, including a progressive Income-tax structure and increased spending on food, health, education, housing, and social security.
According to the World Inequality Report 2026, published by Paris School of Economics’ World Inequality Lab, inequality in India is among the highest in the world and has shown “little movement in recent years”. As per their estimates, the top-10% of the country’s earners capture about 58% of national income, with the bottom 50% receive only 15%.
“Wealth inequality is even greater, with the richest 10% holding around 65% of total wealth and the top 1% about 40%,” the 2026 report said, adding that inequality, on the whole, remains deeply entrenched across income, wealth, and gender dimensions, “highlighting persistent structural divides within the economy”.
The number of individuals who reported a gross total income of at least Rs 100 crore crossed 500 in Assessment Year 2025-26, up 39% from the previous year, the Ministry of Finance said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Monday. The finance ministry data showed the number of rupee billionaires as per their income has quadrupled in four years to 576 from 142 in AY 2021-22.
Assessment Year refers to the 12 months after the year in which income is earned, or the financial year. As such, AY 2025-26 is 2024-25, or April 2024-March 2025.
One billion is equal to 100 crore.
“There is no statutory definition of the term ‘billionaire’ either under the Income-tax Act, 2025 or under the erstwhile Income-tax Act, 1961,” Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary said in response to a question by Congress Member of Parliament Murari Lal Meena asking if the government is aware that there has been a significant increase in the number of billionaires in the country.
Chaudhary went on to provide details of the number of individuals who had reported gross total income of at least Rs 100 crore in the Income-tax Returns (ITRs) filed for the last five Assessment Years.
Usually, the government releases these figures as part of its income tax return statistics. The last year for which data is available is AY 2023-24. This was released in July 2024.
There is no official measure of incomes in India, with researchers relying on Income Tax return statistics, released by the finance ministry with a lag. However, the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) is currently conducting the first-ever National Household Income Survey. Started in April, the survey will end in March 2027, with the results expected to take a few more months to be processed before their release. Latest GDP data shows that India’s per capita gross national income in 2025-26 was Rs 2.41 lakh in current prices, up 8% from 2024-25.
In addition to measuring household income, the maiden income survey is supposed to also assess the impact of adoption of technology on wages.
According to Forbes, India has 229 ‘dollar billionaires’ as per their net worth. Since one US dollar is equal to around 96 rupees, dollar billionaires have a net worth of at least Rs 9,600 crore. Meanwhile, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index – also based on net worth, not annual income – estimates there are 23 Indians in the world’s richest 500 people.
Inequality in India
In his answer in Lok Sabha on Monday, Pankaj Chaudhary said the government does not maintain data on aggregate wealth of taxpayers. Further, in response to Meena’s question if the government has conducted any study on the impact of the increasing concentration of income and wealth on income inequality, investment, employment generation, and inclusive economic growth, Chaudhary said data from the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey for 2023-24 (August-July) showed that the Gini coefficient for rural and urban areas had declined to 0.237 and 0.284, respectively. This, he said, was indicative of a narrowing rural-urban gap.
The Gini coefficient is the most commonly-used measure of inequality.
The MoS in the finance ministry added that India’s labour market had recovered after the Covid pandemic, the unemployment rate for those aged 15 years and above had decreased to 3.1% in 2025 as per the Periodic Labour Force Survey, and the government had taken several measures to reduce income and wealth inequality, including a progressive Income-tax structure and increased spending on food, health, education, housing, and social security.
According to the World Inequality Report 2026, published by Paris School of Economics’ World Inequality Lab, inequality in India is among the highest in the world and has shown “little movement in recent years”. As per their estimates, the top-10% of the country’s earners capture about 58% of national income, with the bottom 50% receive only 15%.
“Wealth inequality is even greater, with the richest 10% holding around 65% of total wealth and the top 1% about 40%,” the 2026 report said, adding that inequality, on the whole, remains deeply entrenched across income, wealth, and gender dimensions, “highlighting persistent structural divides within the economy”.
