1% of the super wealthy owns 40% of India’s Wealth: Oxfam’s Report
The most recent Oxfam study details on economic inequality in India with just 1% of the wealthy have 40% of the nation's wealth.
According to the research, barely 3% of the nation's wealth is owned by its citizens. Let's study Oxfam's "Survival of the Richest" in more detail.
The top one percent of earners in the country owned more than 40% of the country's wealth between 2012 and 2021.
Inequality in the distribution of wealth
Only 3% of the nation's wealth is owned by its 50% people.
By 2022, there were 166 billionaires in the nation, up from 102 in 2020.
The richest individual in the nation, Gautam Adani, saw a 46% gain in his fortune in 2022.
The combined fortune of India's 100 richest people is Rs. 53 lakh crore, or around 18 months' worth of the Union Budget.
Between 2017 and 2021, Adani has paid Rs. 1.79 lakh crore in taxes on his fortune. This sum covers the salaries of elementary school teachers across the nation for a whole year.
The amount of revenue collected from billionaires would be Rs. 40,423 crore if the government increased the tax rate for them by 2%. Children who are malnourished can receive a healthy meal for three years with this amount of money.
If Multi Millionaires and billionaires throughout the world are subjected to a 5% tax,it would yield in 1.7 trillion dollars yearly. 200 million people may be rescued from poverty with this sum.
Oxfam stated in its report that India is developing to enrich the wealthy.
Poor Pay more Taxes
64 percent of the total GST tax in the country is paid by the other 50 percent of the normal citizens of the country.
The wealthy billionaires just contribute to the 4% GST of India.
Due to the burden of taxes, the underprivileged, women, people from marginalized communities, and workers in the unorganized sector are mired in poverty.
Declining living standards
India has the highest number of poor people in the world. Around 22 crore people are impoverished.
There is a lot of gender discrimination among daily wage earners. If a man earns one rupee, women earn only 64 Paisa.
According to the report, in many countries around the world, the poor pay more taxes than billionaires.
Poor are the Victim around the world
Elon Musk, one of the richest people in the world, paid only 3 percent tax between 2014 and 2018.
A flour seller in Uganda earns $80
a month and pays 40 percent tax,
Oxfam said.
According to the report, billionaires cannot be relieved of tax exemptions and low tax rates; the report urges governments to raise taxes on the wealthy.
Oxfam Suggestions
Inheritance taxes on property and land should be increased. The net wealth tax proforma should be introduced.
Public health systems should be the main focus of governments.
The government must ensure that people working in unorganized sectors are paid more minimum wages and that the poor have adequate social security.
Also it recommends for progressive measures like a wealth tax to be introduced in the upcoming budget.