New Delhi: The top 1% increased their wealth by $42 trillion in the past decade, 34 times more than the bottom 50% of the global population, Oxfam said in a report released ahead of the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Brazil.
“The average wealth per person in the top 1% rose by nearly $400,000 in real terms over the last decade compared to just $335 – an equivalent increase of less than nine cents a day – for a person in the bottom half,” Oxfam said.
The report also pointed out that billionaires around the world have been paying a tax rate equivalent to less than 0.5% of their wealth.
The G20 Finance Ministers meeting is expected to deliberate on a global deal to increase taxes on the super-rich, with Brazilian Finance Minister Fernando Haddad identifying the global tax on billionaires as a key deliverable at the summit.
The proposal is backed by countries like South Africa, Spain and France.
“Inequality has reached obscene levels, and until now governments have failed to protect people and the planet from its catastrophic effects,” said Oxfam International’s Head of Inequality Policy, Max Lawson. “The richest one percent of humanity continues to fill their pockets while the rest are left to scrap for crumbs,” he added.
According to Oxfam’s research, the share of income of the top 1% of earners in G20 countries rose by 45% in the last four decades while top tax rates on their incomes were cut by roughly a third.
Wealth tax
Oxfam said an annual net wealth tax of at least 8% would be needed to reduce billionaires’ extreme wealth. G20 countries are home to nearly four out of five of the world’s billionaires.
The wealth tax in India was abolished in 2015 and replaced by an additional 2% surcharge, on top of the existing 10%, on those earning more than Rs 1 crore a year.
Until 2015, an individual, a Hindu Undivided Family or a company had to pay 1% as wealth tax on net wealth of value over Rs 30 lakhs. For the financial year 2013-14, total wealth tax collection was Rs 1,008 crore, Mint had reported.
