India's income taxpayer base has touched 7.4 crore, CBDT Chairperson Rani Singh Nair said on Tuesday. This is a significant increase from the 5 crore number mentioned in the recent past.Prime Minister Narendra Modi had in June this year urged the income tax department to aspire for a taxpayer base of 10 crore. Nair counted both income-tax return filers and those covered under tax deduction at source (TDS) to put the figure at 7.4 crore.Yet she noted that at 17 per cent, India's tax-to-GDP ratio figured much lower than the 23-24 per cent seen in many countries, including among its neighbours. She also said the Centre was considering the Special Investigation Team's (SIT) recommendation to ban all cash transactions in excess of Rs 3 lakh. "As far as the Income Tax Department is concerned, we have put a 1 per cent TCS (Tax Collected at Source) on cash transactions; we have made PAN quoting mandatory. All these aspects are also part of the SIT recommendation to stop the use of cash in the economy. The recommendation on ₹3 lakh and above is under consideration," she said.