Indian per capita income to grow sevenfold by FY47, says SBI Research

The buoyancy in the number of tax filers earlier not reporting income also contributed to the upward push

The per capita income of Indians as gleaned from income-tax filing is expected to increase from Rs 2 lakh in FY23 to Rs 14.9 lakh in FY47, coinciding with 100 years of the country’s Independence, according to SBI Research.

In dollar terms it will increase from about $2,500 in FY23 to $12,400 in FY47.

Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, State Bank of India, said the weighted mean income was Rs 4.4 lakh in AY14. That rose to Rs 13 lakh in FY23.

The buoyancy in the number of tax-filers has contributed to the upward push.

According to Ghosh, the middle class is on the rise. It is more forward-looking than what a lot of corresponding research has been able to capture. This class displays a state of mind filled with abundant hope. This may warrant new definitions because it depicts a unique state of flux, leveraging the emerging opportunities as the economy gets formalised and the share of the gig economy rises, Ghosh added.

The population of India is expected to increase to 1.6 billion in FY47 from 1.4 billion in FY23 and, correspondingly, the workforce is expected to increase to 725 million in FY47 from 530 million in FY23. This would mean increasing the workforce share in the population from 37.9 per cent in FY23 to 45 per cent in FY47.

SBI Research said the workforce with a taxable base was expected to increase to 565 million in FY47 from 313 million in FY23.

Income-tax filers are expected to increase from 70 million in FY23 to 482 million in FY47.