Oxfam: Billionaires' wealth increased by ₹3608 crore every day since Covid started, but 'poor' paid more GST

India's richest one percent of people have more than 40 percent of the country's total wealth, while on the other hand, half of the country's population is living on just 3 percent of the country's total wealth. According to a report, since the start of the pandemic in November 2022, the wealth of billionaires in India has seen an increase of 121 percent in real terms, or Rs 3,608 crore every day. However, in terms of paying GST, the burden fell more on the common man.

On the first day of the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, the human rights group Oxfam International released the India Supplement to the annual inequality report. He has said that by imposing a five percent tax on the 10 richest people in India, all the money can be raised for the campaign to bring children back to school.

The report said, 'Rs 1.79 lakh crore could have been collected from a one-time tax on unrealized gains on just one billionaire Gautam Adani during 2017-2021. This amount is enough to employ over 5 million Indian primary school teachers for a year.

The report titled 'Survival of the Richest' further stated that if India's billionaires were taxed once on their entire wealth at the rate of 2 percent, it would generate 40,423 crores over the next three years to feed the country's malnourished people. To meet the requirement of Rs. It states, "A one-time tax of five percent on the country's 10 richest billionaires (Rs 1.37 lakh crore) by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Rs 86,200 crore) and the Ministry of AYUSH (Rs 3,050 crore) for the year 2022-23." is more than 1.5 times the estimated funding for

For every rupee that men get, women get only 63 paise.

On gender inequality, the report said that female workers get only 63 paise for every Re 1 earned by a male worker. For Scheduled Castes and rural workers, the gap is even greater—Scheduled Castes earned 55 percent of the social groups' earnings and only half of the latter's urban earnings between 2018 and 2019.

"A 2.5 percent tax on the top 100 Indian billionaires or a five percent tax on the top 10 Indian billionaires would raise almost the entire amount needed to get children back to school," the report said.

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 wealth inequality and billionaire wealth in the country, while government sources such as NSS, Union Budget documents, parliamentary questions, etc. have been used to corroborate the arguments made through the report. has been done.

Low-income half of the country's population paid 64% of the GST

Oxfam said that since the start of the pandemic in November 2022, the wealth of billionaires in India has seen an increase of 121 percent in real terms, or Rs 3,608 crore every day. About 64 percent of the Rs crore came from the bottom 50 percent of the population in 2021-22 with only 3 percent GST coming from the top 10 percent.

Oxfam said that the total number of billionaires in India is expected to increase from 102 in 2020 to 166 in 2022. The report states that the combined wealth of India's 100 richest people has reached $660 billion (Rs 54.12 lakh crore).

Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said, “The country's marginalized Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, women, and informal sector workers are trapped as victims in a system that only interests the rich. “Poor people are paying more taxes, spending more on essential goods and services than the rich. The time has come to tax the rich and ensure they pay their fair share.

Behar urged the Union finance minister to implement progressive tax measures such as wealth tax and inheritance tax, which he said would prove historically effective in tackling inequality.

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