Survival of the Richest: The India story – India’s richest 1% own more than 40% of total wealth: Oxfam

Source: The post is based on the article “India’s richest 1% own more than 40% of total wealth: Oxfam” published in The Hindu on 18th January 2023.

What is the News?

Oxfam has released a report  titled “Survival of the Richest: The India story”.

What are the key findings of the Survival of the Richest: The India story?

Wealth Inequality: The richest 1% in India now own more than 40% of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3% of the wealth.

– The combined wealth of India’s 100 richest has touched USD 660 billion (Rs 54.12 lakh crore) — an amount that could fund the entire Union Budget for more than 18 months.

Gender and social inequality: Female workers earned only 63 paise for every 1 rupee earned by male workers.

– The situation is even worse for Scheduled Castes and rural workers, as they earned 55% and half of what the advantaged social groups earned respectively, between 2018 and 2019.

GST: Approximately 64% of the total Rs 14.83 lakh crore in Goods and Services Tax (GST) came from the bottom 50% of the population in 2021-22, with only 3% of GST coming from the top 10%.

What are the suggestions given by the report to combat inequality?

Implement inheritance, property and land taxes, as well as net wealth taxes, in order to reduce inequality and generate revenue for social programs.

– For instance, taxing India’s ten-richest at 5% can fetch entire money to bring children back to school or if India’s billionaires are taxed once at 2% on their entire wealth, it would support the requirement of Rs 40,423 crore for the nutrition of malnourished in the country for the next three years. 

Enhance the budgetary allocation of the health sector to 2.5% of GDP by 2025, as envisaged in the National Health Policy.

Enhance the budgetary allocation for education to the global benchmark of 6% of GDP.

Impose a windfall tax on food companies that are making large profits as inflation has surged.