The two richest industrialists in India are Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani.
Nowadays, whenever one talks about rich people in India, the first names that come to mind are billionaires like Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani. Since inequality is increasing across the world, as per the World Bank report, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, then the discussion is gaining momentum on whether a separate billionaire tax should be imposed on these billionaires. What is this tax? Why has it become the most important issue at the G20 Summit to be held in Brazil this year?
After India, Brazil holds the G20 presidency this year. Among the G20 countries, the host country proposes reaching a consensus on many issues. This time Brazil has proposed a multi-billion-dollar tax, which is also supported by countries such as France, Spain, South Africa and Germany.
What is the billionaire tax?
The multi-billion dollar tax proposed by Brazil was actually prepared by French economist Gabriel Zucman. It is actually a property tax. In this case, the government collects taxes from the owners of property that exceeds a certain limit. The concept of this type of tax existed already in ancient times.
Brazil is proposing to levy an annual tax of 2 per cent on those whose wealth is more than $1 billion (around Rs 8,300 crore). This is the billionaire tax. With this, governments will be able to collect $250 billion (around Rs 20.8 lakh crore) every year from around 3,000 super-rich individuals around the world.
Congress questioned the government
The main opposition party in India, the Congress, also seems to support it. The party’s prominent leader Jairam Ramesh tweeted and asked the government to explain India’s position on this matter. In his post, he has written that the number of people in India with assets worth more than $1 billion is 167. If the government levies a 2 percent wealth tax on them every year, then there will be an income of Rs 1.5 lakh crore. This will be around 0.5 percent of the country’s GDP. With this, investments can be made in schools, hospitals, renewable energy and other needs of the country.
What is the opinion of ordinary Indians?
Recently, a survey was also conducted on what the opinion of common Indians is about the tax on billionaires. According to the survey by ‘Earth 4 All Initiative and Global Commons Alliance’, around 68 percent of people across the world are in favour of imposing a ‘tax on billionaires’. Here is what citizens living in the world’s major economies have to say.
At the same time, 74 percent of the Indians surveyed have supported the wealth tax to be imposed on the super-rich or billionaires. They say that this tax should be used to tackle hunger and inequality in the country. At the same time, 68 percent of the Indians surveyed talk about covering the needs of electricity production, transport, construction, industry and food with this money. Thus, around 81 percent of the people believe that by setting aside this money, the government should solve problems related to health and the environment.
