Speaking at a media event on Wednesday, Narendra Modi commented that, since 2015, over 1.5 crore high-end cars have been sold in India and that over 3 crore Indians have gone abroad. However, in terms of tax declarations, this is not adding up. "Only 1.5 crore Indians pay taxes. Out of this, only 3 lakh people have declared their income over Rs 50 lakh and 2,200 people over Rs 1 crore. It is shocking," the Prime Minister said.

As per journalist Swati Chaturvedi, the PM has quoted wrong data in the speech. "As per Income Tax data, 97,689 people disclosed Rs One Crore and above Income. Why has the Finance Ministry not even given correct figures to Modi?" she asked.

Expectedly, Modi's speech has been pooh-poohed by sections of commentators. Communist leader Sitaram Yechury said, "As per Modi, every Indian is a thief while his party is the one that has usurped crores secretly through opaque electoral bonds. If no one pays tax, what has Modi done over the past 6 years? Didn't he unleash demonetization claiming that it would end all black money and tax evasion?" he asked.

Senior journalist Rajdeep Sardesai wrote, "So Mr PM, will we ever get India’s wealthy agriculturalists to pay tax? And how many of our netas/MPs who don’t disclose their true assets are in IT net? Or are only the salaried urban middle class soft targets?"