The Income Tax (I-T) department issued the most number of PAN cards in FY14 to 'individuals'. According to data made public by the department, PAN cards were issued to 2,76,45,257 individuals in the period, the maximum across the eleven PAN card categories. This accounts for 98.07% of the total PAN cards issued in the period. 

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In the period, the government issued 2,81,89,452 PAN cards.

The other categories for which the government issues PAN cards include, Association of Persons, Body of Individuals, Company, Firm, Government, HUF, Artificial Judicial Person, Local Authority, Individual, and Trust. 

Along with this, the government has also made public data about the total number of taxpayers in the country, distributed among various income brackets as disclosed by the details filled in the income tax returns filing. The I-T department on Friday, published data about PAN card allocation across various categories in financial year 2014 along with data about the gender-wise allocation and across various ages. 

"A total of 84 page data has been released and put in the public domain for the first time. A number of economists and researchers had demanded that such data should be made available publicly and hence it has been uploaded on the official web portal of the department," a senior official said. 

This is the first time the CBDT has made such data public. The department said the objective of publishing these statistics was to encourage "wider use and analysis of Income Tax data by departmental personnel and academicians." 

In the 'Individual' category, PAN cards issued to males made up for 66.24% of the total issuance at 1,83,13,386. While 93,31,889 females (33.76%) were issued new PAN cards in the period.

Among the men, males in the age bracket of over 20 years but less than or equal to 30 years were issued the most new PAN cards. 70,41,241 men (or 25.47% of the total new PAN cards issued to males) in this age bracket were issued new cards. 

This was followed by males in the age group of above 30 years but less than or equal to 40 years, with 35,74,978 (12.93%) new cards issued and the age group of over 40 years but less than or equal to 50 years (8.47%). Men equal to or over the age of 80 years made up for the least number of males who were issued new PAN cards -- at 44,956 or 0.16% of the total new PAN cards issued to men.

Among the women too the same trend was seen among the various age groups. Out of 93,31,889 PAN cards issued to women, those in the age group of 20 to 30 years were issued the most pan cards. This category accounted for 11.42% or 31,57,359 new PAN cards issued out of the total allotted to women. This was followed by the 30 - 40 years age group (21,73,555 or 7.86%). Here too, women in the above 80 years category were issued the least number of new PAN cards -- 33,987 or 0.12%. 

The 'individual' category was followed by 'Firms' -- the government issued 2,43,789 PAN cards to firms, making up for 0.86% of the total PAN cards issued across sectors in the fiscal under consideration. 'Companies' was third -- with 1,01,973 new PAN cards issued, or 0.36% of the total issued. 

​Income tax data for the annual year 2012-13

According to PTI, the data made public by the government showed that 2.9 crore Indians filed income tax returns in annual year 2012-13. The taxpayers of the country filed 3,11,88,622 (over 3.11 crore) income tax returns with the sum of salary income amounting to Rs 6,27,246 crore. 

The income bracket of over Rs 5.5 lakh and under or equal to Rs 9.5 lakh had the most number of tax payers in the year -- with 20,23,703 returns filed. This tax payers in this category had an average salary of Rs 6.94 lakh.

The Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore bracket saw only six people declaring their incomes. They showed an average income of Rs 68.72 crore in 2012-13.

(With PTI Inputs)