According to a recent Oxfam analysis, more than 40.5% of all wealth in India was owned by the top 1% in 2021.
The report stated that there were 166 billionaires in the nation in 2022 as opposed to 102 in 2020.
The poor in India, it continued, “are unable to purchase even basic essentials to life.”
The charity demanded that the finance minister of India impose a wealth tax on the extremely wealthy in order to address this “obscene” inequity.
As the World Economic Forum got underway in Davos, Switzerland, the report entitled Survival of The Richest was made public.
The research emphasized the stark imbalance in income distribution in India, noting that from 2012 to 2021, more than 40% of wealth generated in the nation went to only 1% of the population, while only 3% trickled down to the bottom 50%.
The fortune of India’s richest man, Gautam Adani, surged by 46% in 2022, while the overall wealth of the country’s top 100 individuals reached $660 billion.
On Bloomberg’s wealth index in 2022, Mr. Adani was listed as the second-richest person in the world. Additionally, he came in first place among those whose fortune increased the most globally during the course of the year.
According to Oxfam, the poor and middle class in the nation pay higher taxes than the wealthy do.
According to the data, the lower 50% of the population contributed about 64% of all goods and services tax (GST) collected nationwide, while the top 10% contributed only 4%.
Amitabh Behar, CEO of Oxfam India, stated that “India is regrettably on a fast route to becoming a country only for the rich.” The country’s marginalized groups, including Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, women, and workers in the informal sector, continue to suffer in a system that assures the survival of the wealthiest.
According to the research, the wealthy currently benefited from tax breaks, exemptions, and reduced corporation taxes.
The nonprofit organization requested that the finance minister include progressive tax policies like a wealth tax in the 2019 budget to address this disparity.
According to the report, the malnourished population of India would get help for the next three years from a 2% tax on the total wealth of the country’s billionaires.
It claimed that a 1% wealth tax could pay for India’s largest healthcare program, the National Health Mission, for more than 1.5 years.
According to Oxfam, the cash needed to re-enroll an estimated 150 million children in school could be paid for by taxing the top 100 Indian billionaires at a rate of 2.5% or the top 10 Indian billionaires at a rate of 5%.
According to Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, “it’s time we dispel the comforting idea that tax cuts for the wealthiest result in their income magically ‘trickling down’ to everyone else.”
She continued by saying that taxing the extremely wealthy was essential for “reducing inequality and reviving democracy.”
