The State Bank of India has released an economic research report revealing a substantial decrease in individual income inequality in India between the financial years 2013-2014 and 2021-2022. The study attributes this reduction to a significant migration within the income categories at the lower end of the economic pyramid.
The report of Economic Research Department of SBI has said that income inequality captured through the Gini coefficient of taxable income has declined significantly from 0.472 to 0.402 during financial years 2013-2014 and 2021-2022.
According to this report, 36.3 percent of taxpayers have moved from lower income to higher income tax bucket, resulting in 21.3 percent additional income while the top 2.5 percent of taxpayer’s contribution in income has declined from 2.81 percent to 2.28 percent during the same period.
The report further reveals that the income disparity of people earning less than 3.5 lakh rupees has declined from 31.8 percent to 15.8 percent during the said period, signifying that the share of this income group in the total income, in comparison to their population has increased by 16 percent.