A study by rights group Oxfam has shattered the development mirage of India as it shows that there is rising income inequality to the extent that India’s richest 1 per cent now hold a huge 58 per cent of the country’s total wealth higher than the global figure of about 50 per cent, a new study showed today.
The study shows that just 57 billionaires in India now have same wealth (USD 216 billion) as that of the bottom 70 per cent population of the country and globally, just 8 billionaires have the same amount of wealth as the poorest 50 per cent of the world population.
The study said there are 84 billionaires in India, with a collective wealth of USD 248 billion, led by Mukesh Ambani (USD 19.3 billion), Dilip Shanghvi (USD 16.7 billion) and Azim Premji (USD 15 billion). The total Indian wealth in the country stood at USD 3.1 trillion. The total global wealth in the year was USD 255.7 trillion, of which about USD 6.5 trillion was held by billionaires, led by Bill Gates (USD 75 billion), Amancio Ortega (USD 67 billion) and Warren Buffett (USD 60.8 billion).
In the report titled ‘An economy for the 99 per cent’, Oxfam said it is time to build a human economy that benefits everyone, not just the privileged few. It said that since 2015, the richest 1 per cent has owned more wealth than the rest of the planet.
The study also said that the CEO of India’s top information firm earns 416 times the salary of a typical employee in his company.
In Asia, Singapore and India have a high number of multi-generational billionaires and a lot many people across the globe, including India, will transfer wealth to their heirs in the next 20 years, the study said, while pushing for a need to establish a system of inheritance tax.
It asked the Indian government to end the extreme concentration of wealth to end poverty, introduce inheritance tax and increase the wealth tax as the proportion of this tax in total tax revenue is one of the lowest in India.
“Indian government must eliminate tax exemptions and not further reduce corporate tax rates. Governments must support companies that benefit their workers and society rather than just their shareholders,” Oxfam said adding that the Indian government must crack down on tax dodging by corporates and rich individuals to end the era of tax havens.
