The richest 1% in India now own more than 40% of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom 3% of the population shares only 3% of the wealth, a new study showed on Monday.
releasing the India Supplement to its annual inequality report on the first day of Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in DavosRights group Oxfam International said a 5% tax on India’s ten richest people could provide enough money to get children back to school.
It added, “A one-time tax on Gautam Adani, a billionaire alone, on unrealized profits from 2017-2021 can raise Rs 1.79 lakh crore, enough to employ over five million Indian primary school teachers for a year.” enough for.”
The report titled ‘Survival of the Richest’ further states that if India’s billionaires are taxed once on their entire wealth at the rate of 2%, it will be enough to feed the malnourished in the country for the next three years. 40,423 crore will support the requirement of Rs.
“The one-time tax of 5% (Rs 1.37 lakh crore) on the country’s 10 richest billionaires is 1.5 times more than the money estimated by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Rs 86,200 crore) and the Ministry of AYUSH (₹ 3,050 crore) year for 2022-23,” it added.
On gender inequality, the report states that women workers get only 63 paise for every Re 1 earned by a male worker.
For scheduled castes and rural workers, the gap is even more stark – the former earned 55% of the income of advantaged social groups between 2018 and 2019, and the latter only half of urban income.
Taxing the top 100 Indian billionaires at 2.5% or taxing the top 10 Indian billionaires at 5% would provide almost the entire amount needed to get children back to school.
Oxfam said the report blends qualitative and quantitative information to explore the impact of inequality in India.
Secondary sources such as Forbes and Credit Suisse have been used to look at the wealth disparity in the country and the wealth of billionaires, while government sources such as NSS, Union Budget documents, parliamentary questions, etc. have been used to corroborate the arguments made through the report. done for.
Oxfam said that since the start of the pandemic till November 2022, billionaires in India have seen their wealth increase by 121% or Rs 3,608 crore per day.
On the other hand, about 64% of the total ₹14.83 lakh crore in Goods and Services Tax (GST) came from the bottom 50% population in 2021-22, with only 3% GST coming from the top 10%.
Oxfam said that the total number of billionaires in India is expected to increase from 102 in 2020 to 166 in 2022.
It said the combined wealth of India’s 100 richest people has reached $660 billion (Rs 54.12 lakh crore) – an amount that could fund the entire Union budget for over 18 months.
Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said, “The country’s marginalized – Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, women and informal sector workers – suffer in a system that ensures the survival of the richest.
“The poor are paying more taxes, spending more on essential goods and services than the rich. Time has come to tax the rich and ensure they pay their fair share.”
Mr Behar urged the Union finance minister to implement progressive tax measures such as wealth tax and inheritance tax, which he said have historically proved effective in tackling inequality.
Citing a nationwide survey by Fight Inequality Alliance India (FIA India) in 2021, Oxfam found that more than 80% of people in India support taxes on the rich and corporations, which made record profits during this period. covid-19 pandemic,
It said, “More than 90 per cent of the respondents demanded budget measures to tackle inequality, such as universal social security, the right to health and expansion of the budget to prevent gender-based violence.”
“The time has come for us to bust the convenient myth that tax cuts for the richest result in some kind of ‘trickle down’ to everyone else. Taxation is a strategic precondition.
“We need to do this for innovation, for stronger public services and happier and healthier societies,” said Gabriella Butcher, executive director of Oxfam International.
Oxfam India urged the Union Finance Minister to introduce solidarity wealth taxes and windfall taxes to end crisis profiteering. It also called for a permanent increase in taxes on the richest 1%, and specifically to raise taxes on capital gains, which are subject to lower tax rates than other forms of income.
Oxfam called for inheritance, property and land taxes, as well as net wealth taxes, to be increased to 2.5% of GDP by 2025 as envisaged in the National Health Policy. Oxfam said it also wanted the public health system to be strengthened and the budgetary allocation for education increased to the global benchmark of 6% of GDP.
“Ensure that workers in the formal and informal sector are paid a basic minimum wage. The minimum wage should be equal to the living wage that is necessary to live a life with dignity.”