Oxfam report makes case for taxing rich, says ‘one-off tax on Adani…’ | Top 10

The total number of billionaires in India increased from 102 in 2020 to 166 in 2022 while the combined wealth of India’s 100 richest has touched ₹54.12 lakh crore.

Billionaires in India have seen their fortune surge by 121 per cent, or ₹3,608 crore per day in real terms, since the Covid pandemic begun, a new report showed on Monday. On the other hand, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away by 2020, according to the annual inequality report titled ‘Survival of the Richest’ released by Oxfam on the first day of the World Economic Forum.

1. The India supplement of the inequality report said that the richest one per cent in India now own more than 40 per cent of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of wealth.
2. Making a case for taxing the rich, the report said that taxing India’s ten richest at 5 per cent can fetch entire money to bring children back to school.
3. It also argued that one-off tax on unrealized gains from 2017–2021 on Gautam Adani could have been enough to employ more than five million Indian primary school teachers for a year.
4. The report further said that if India’s billionaires are taxed once at 2 per cent on their entire wealth, it would support the requirement of ₹40,423 crore for the nutrition of malnourished in the country for the next three years.
5. “A one-time tax of 5 per cent on the 10 richest billionaires in the country ( ₹1.37 lakh crore) is more than 1.5 times the funds estimated by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry ( ₹86,200 crore) and the Ministry of Ayush ( ₹3,050 crore) for the year 2022-23,” it added.
6. In 2021-22, only 3 per cent of GST coming from the top 10 per cent while approximately 64 per cent of the total ₹14.83 lakh crore in Goods and Services Tax (GST) came from bottom 50 per cent of the population.
7. According to the report, taxing the top 100 Indian billionaires at 2.5 per cent, or taxing the top 10 Indian billionaires at 5 per cent would nearly cover the entire amount required to bring the children back into school.
8. Oxfam said the report is a mix of qualitative and quantitative information to explore the impact of inequality in India.
9. The total number of billionaires in India increased from 102 in 2020 to 166 in 2022 while the combined wealth of India’s 100 richest has touched USD 660 billion ( ₹54.12 lakh crore), an amount that could fund the entire Union Budget for more than 18 months.
10. Oxfam India urged the Union finance minister to introduce one-off solidarity wealth taxes and windfall taxes to end crisis profiteering. It also demanded a permanent increase in taxes on the richest 1 per cent and especially raise taxes on capital gains, which are subject to lower tax rates than other forms of income.