A report released by Oxfam, titled “Survival of the Richest: The India story” revealed that 40% of the entire country’s wealth is held by the 1% rich population, while in contrast to that more than 50% of the country’s populations holds just 3% of the net wealth.
Oxfam India’s CEO Amitabh Behar said, “The poor population of the country is paying more tax than the richer segment of the society, they are paying more on essential goods and services than the rich, it is high time that we impose taxes on them.”
The reports details, 1.37 lakh crore rupees can be collected by imposing a 5% tax on the 10 richest persons in India. This is more than 1.5 times the estimated funds for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Rs 86,200 crore) and the Ministry of AYUSH (Rs 3,050 crore) for 2020-2023. With this much money, all the children can be properly funded for proper schooling.
Oxfam said, 'If India's billionaires are taxed once on their total wealth at the rate of 2%, then Rs 40,423 crore’s need can be met for the nutrition of malnourished people in the country for the next three years.’
The Org’s report further adds that billionaires in India have seen their wealth grow by 121% or Rs 3,608 crore per day since the start of the pandemic till November 2022. On the other hand, about 64% of the total Rs 14.83 lakh crore in Goods and Service Tax (GST) in 2021-22 came from half the population, while, only 3% of the entire GST collected was received from the top 10.
Oxfam said that the total number of billionaires in India has increased from 102 in 2020 to 166 in 2022. The combined wealth of India's 100 richest people has reached $660 billion (Rs 54.12 lakh crore). This is an amount that can fund the entire Union budget for over 18 months.
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Oxfam on Gautam Adani:
The firm said If the provisions are made to impose a tax on the unrealized gain of India’s richest man Gautam Adani between 2017-2021 a total of ₹1.79 Lakh can be collected alone, which can cater to the entire annual salary of 50 Lakhs primary school teachers in the country.
Female workers are underpaid than Male workers:
The report on gender inequality states that female workers get only 63 paise for every Re 1 earned by a male worker. The difference is even greater for scheduled caste and rural workers. Compared to the class which is ahead in society, the scheduled caste earns only 55%, while the rural workers earn half i.e., 50%.
Oxfam’s report on the wealth divide:
Oxfam said sources such as Forbes and Credit Suisse have been used to look at wealth inequality in the country and the wealth of billionaires. While government sources like NSS, Union Budget documents, parliamentary questions, etc. have been used to corroborate the arguments made through the report.