{"id":152581,"date":"2023-04-01T12:13:07","date_gmt":"2023-04-01T06:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/?p=152581"},"modified":"2023-04-01T12:13:07","modified_gmt":"2023-04-01T06:43:07","slug":"fact-check-jains-are-1-per-cent-of-indias-population-their-contribution-through-income-tax-is-24-per-cent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.altnews.in\/english-clone-2026\/fact-check-jains-are-1-per-cent-of-indias-population-their-contribution-through-income-tax-is-24-per-cent\/","title":{"rendered":"Jains contribute 24% of total income tax in India? Unfounded claim viral for years"},"content":{"rendered":"

From time to time, different types of claims regarding the Jain community circulate on public forums, online communities and social media. The reach of these claims is so wide that they are mentioned in business summits, study material for government job examinations, so-called case studies and research papers, and news reports and bulletins, and are also promoted by politicians. One of these claims is that the Jain community contributes more than 24 percent to the total tax collected in India. This claim has been circulating for years, which also states that though Jains constitute 0.4 percent of the whole population, they have a 24 percent contribution to the total income tax.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a <\/span>report<\/span><\/a> by The Hindu dated August 2007, while inaugurating the Chennai chapter of the Jain International Trade Organization (JITO)<\/a> on August 19, 2007, former BJP MP Pushp Jain from the Pali Lok Sabha constituency of Rajasthan, said while Jains formed a little less than 1 percent of India’s population, their contribution to the exchequer through income tax was an astounding 24 percent.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Vivek Bindra<\/span><\/a> also claimed that in 2009, the Jain community contributed 42 percent to the total income tax collected in India.<\/span><\/p>\n

[vimeo 790854386 w=640 h=360]<\/p>\n

Study IQ IAS<\/span><\/a>, a digital platform claiming to prepare aspirants for government jobs like the UPSC, CSE, SSC, State PSC, UGC NET, Railways, etc., also made the same claim in a video dated October 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

[vimeo 790842916 w=640 h=360]<\/p>\n

News18 anchor Amish Devgan made a similar claim in two of his TV <\/span>segments<\/span><\/a>. Videos of both were uploaded on YouTube on <\/span>January 4<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>January 6<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

[vimeo 791143559 w=640 h=360]<\/p>\n

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[vimeo 790843806 w=640 h=360]<\/p>\n

In a byte given to India TV in for a bulletin in January this year, pro-BJP poet <\/span>Anamika Jain Amber<\/span><\/a> also made the same claim.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[vimeo 791087143 w=640 h=360]<\/p>\n

That same month, <\/span>Manoj Muntashir Shukla<\/span><\/a> also made a similar claim in a video while talking about the Jain community. Manoj presented this claim as a fact in the video.<\/span><\/p>\n

[vimeo 790842346 w=640 h=360]<\/p>\n

\u00a0A study authored by Kiran CM in the International Journal of Applied Research\u2019s <\/span>VOL. 6, ISSUE 3, PART D (2020) also carried the same claim.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

A similar claim was made by <\/span>Varinder Bansal<\/span><\/a>, former research & corporate editor, CNBC India and founder, Omkara Capital, in a September 2022 tweet.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Fact Check<\/b><\/h4>\n

Since this claim has been circulating from a period before the 2011 Census, Alt News first checked the population data on the basis of religion from the 2001 Census to verify the population of Jains in the country. According to the Religion Data Report of the <\/span>2001 Census<\/span><\/a> available on the official portals of <\/span>Census India<\/span><\/a> and the Linguistic Survey of India, the population of Jains at that time was 0.4 percent of the total population of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We found a press release published by the <\/span>Press Information Bureau<\/span><\/a> in 2015. Based on the data released by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner, it states that in the 2011 Census, the population of Jains was 0.4 percent of the total population of the country.<\/span><\/p>\n

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No \u2018Religion\u2019 Field in Income Tax e-filing Portal Registration Form<\/h4>\n

Alt News completed all the steps needed to register an individual account on the Income Tax website and found that there was no field for religion in the form. After an account has been registered, there is no information which pertains to the holder\u2019s religion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n