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NEW DELHI: India ’s crorepati club is growing, going by the latest data from the Income-Tax Department. The number of individuals declaring income above Rs 1crore increased about 68% to 81,344 for the assessment year 2017-18 from 48,416 in 2014-15. Statistics released on Monday by the apex direct taxes body, the Central Board of Direct Taxes ( CBDT ), showed tax-to-GDP ratio rose to a decade high of 5.9% in FY18.If all tax payers are included, the number of those earning above Rs 1crore per annum rises to over 1.4 lakh, a 60% rise over the last four years.In the current year, the department has received 5.8 crore tax returns till October 21 against 3.6 crore during the same period of last fiscal, an increase of 61%. The Income-Tax Department sent about 1.85 crore emails and SMS over January-March this year asking people to file returns and pay taxes based on their tax history or some new information received by the taxman about their transactions, an official told ET.As part of its efforts to widen and deepen the taxpayer base in the country, the CBDT has given a target to the Income-Tax Department to add 1.25 crore new taxpayers by the end of current fiscal, the official said. Last year, 1.06 crore new income-tax assessees were added.The Income-Tax Department has launched a major operation to investigate cases of illegal funds and properties stashed abroad by Indians and may invoke the new anti-black money law for strict criminal action in many such cases. The department, in coordination with its foreign counterparts, is investigating offshore bank deposits and purchase of assets by “thousands of Indians,” an official said. CBDT chairman Sushil Chandra confirmed the move but did not elaborate. In a number of cases, notices have been issued to individuals or other category of taxpayers to explain their transactions. These include high-profile and prominent people and high net-worth individuals.The net direct tax collections grew 15.7% year-on-year to Rs 4.89 lakh crore in the current fiscal till third week of October, the official said. This marks over 42% of the full-year direct tax collection target of Rs 11.5 lakh crore for the fiscal ending March 31, 2019. The department issued about 2 crore refunds for an amount of about Rs 1.09 lakh crore till last week compared with Rs 83,000 crore refunded to taxpayers in the corresponding period of last year.