New Delhi, (IANS) More than 55 percent of the 28.77 million individual assesses in India who filed their returns for 2012-13 paid zero tax, while three at the top-end had to shell out as much as Rs.437 crore collectively, as per latest data from the finance ministry.

As per the Central Board of Direct Taxes, which released income tax filing statistics for the first time, 5,430 individual assesses had an income of above Rs.1 crore, and paid a tax of 13,822 crore collectively.

Only eight people had an income between Rs.50 crore and Rs.100 crore while three people had an income between Rs.100 crore and Rs.500 crore during 2012-13, according to the report.

No person in the country had an income above Rs.500 crore in 2012-13, the report said.

The maximum taxpayers — 38.7 percent — were in the income range of less than Rs.1,50,000, who paid a total of Rs.23,446 crore as taxes. It is also the segment from which maximum taxes came from in 2012-13.  Individual taxpayers with an income between Rs.1.5 lakh and Rs.5 lakh constituted 3.46 percent of the total taxpayers. They paid a combined tax of Rs.26,797 crore, it said.

According to the 2012-13 data, 11,077 people had an income between Rs.50,000 and Rs.1 lakh and paid a combined tax of Rs.7,474 crore.

A total of 1.4 lakh individual assessees, with an income between Rs.10 lakh and Rs.50 lakh, paid Rs.26,886 crore in taxes while 2.4 lakh taxpayers with an income between Rs.5 lakh and Rs.10 lakh paid Rs.16,131 crore collectively, the report said.