First, let us have a look at some real statistics.
World Inequality Report on India
22.6% of the national income went to top 1% in 2022-23. While the share of wealth owned by the top 1% is 40%.
As per Receipt, Budget 2023-24
Companies with more than Rs.500 Cr profit before taxes paid – 19.14% tax
Companies with 0 Rs.1 Crore profit before tax paid – 24.82% tax
Oxfam Report
73% of the wealth generated in 2017 went to the top 1%.
The top 10% holds 77% of the total wealth of the nation.
The wealth of 67 crores of Indians increased only by 1%.
Billionaires’ wealth increased by 10 times in 10 years. It is more than the annual Budget of the country. While on the other hand, due to a poor healthcare system, 6 crore people become poor every year.
The wealth tax was abolished in the year 2015.
Corporate Tax was reduced in 2019 from an average of 32% to 25%. In one year alone, the Govt lost Rs.1 lakh crore.
Share of Corporate Tax has come down from 40% in 2001 to 26% in 2024.
Personal income tax share has increased from 21% to 28%. Indirect taxes like GST is 65.8% in 2022, whereas direct tax is 34.2% (So, the poor pay more tax but the rich pay less!)
Only 0.8 % of the taxpayers show more than Rs.50 lakh taxable income per year.
India has the lowest income tax for the rich, but it has the highest indirect tax (GST) for everyone else while also giving one of the lowest Capital Gains for the Rich.
Wealth Tax
Ancient Athens had a wealth tax. Islam has a wealth tax called Zakat. The 36 OECD countries and most of Europe have a wealth tax, but India abolished it in 2015.
Inheritance Tax – Wikipedia
Belgium has 80%, Japan 55%, Germany 50% France 45%, UK and US 40% Finland 19% and Brazil 8%
The concept is that you enjoyed so much wealth during your life, now give some of it to the country so that it can be used for the welfare of the people.
The wealth of Adani increased by, 1225% in the last 10 years. Ambani’s wealth increased by 350%. As per the 2024 Forbes Billionaires list, India has 200 billionaires.
200 billionaires own $954 billion which is Rs.79,61,130 Crore. India’s GDP was Rs.160.71 lakh crore, which means 200 people alone own more than 25% of the GDP.
The Prime Minister has gifted so much to a few people by allotment of land, contracts, low-interest loans and tax rebates.
Tatas as a company operates in 100 countries with 30 companies. 68% of their shares are held by philanthropic trusts which support education, health, livelihood, art and culture. Shiv Nadar and Azim Premji are the biggest philanthropists other than Tatas.
Just look at 3 persons who are fully supported by the PM in various ways.
Adani has 211 subsidiary companies. Most of them flourished only in the last 10 years. The main companies are Adani Enterprises, Adani New Industries, Adani Connexions, Adani water, Adani Airports, Adani Enterprises (mining), Adani Integrated Resource Management, Adani Road Transport, Adani Digital Labs, Adani Defence Systems, Adani Total Gas, Adani Power, Kutch Copper, Mundra Petroleum, Ambuja Cement and NDTV.
The area of operations are logistics, seaports (13) Airports (8) Shipping, Rail, Power Generation & Distribution, Renewable Energy, Gas, Infrastructure, Agri: Edible oil (Fortune is the leader in the country), Food products, Cold storage, Grain silos, Real Estate, Public Transport, infrastructure, Cement, Media, Defense (Drones to Missiles) Aero Space, Mining Copper, Petro Chemicals, Data centres and others.
Adani Capital has a Co lending agreement with SBI and other banks and gives tractor loans, MSME loans, Supply Chain Management loans and Commercial Vehicle Loans.
Can you understand how he is taking over the country? He is the modern Maharaja. His operations and wealth are across the world.
Reliance operates in energy, petrochemicals, retail, digital, new energy & materials, media & entertainment, oil & gas exploration, production, refining and marketing, textiles, oils, chemicals, etc. 95% of the raw material for plastics comes from Reliance. Can you understand why we can’t ban plastics? Reliance Retail has 18774 stores as of March 2023 and 29.3 crore registered customers. Reliance Jio which was launched by the PM in 2016 has 47 crore customers. Reliance has partnerships with Google, Meta and Microsoft. One in every 2 Indians uses their technology platform. They employ 3,89,464 people and have 30 lakh partners for sales. They have 60 TV channels and which reach 95% of homes in the country as per their Annual Report.
They have Jio Payment Bank in which SBI is a junior partner.
Anil Agarwal of Vedanta (Sterlite) has the Aluminium, Zink, Lead, Silver, Oil & Gas, Iron Ore, Steel, Copper, Power, Ferro Chrome, Semi Conductor and Glass business.
Can you see that the entire country is run by three business magnets? There are a few more. As told by the former Chief Executive of Niti Ayog, Amitabh Kant, they are creating 5 to 6 global champions who will run the country. Former Niti Ayog and present Finance Commission Chief Arvind Panagariya is bent on privatizing public banks, public sector and public services. Everything will be handed over to these 5 to 6 persons and others can have sub-contracts and live on their mercy.
They all have one leg in India and one in the UK or the US
Banks have been giving them loans at 5 to 6% interest without adequate security. They have bought over companies through the National Company Law Tribunals at throwaway prices at the loss of Banks which run on people’s deposits. Mukesh Ambani buying Anil Ambani’s Company, Agarwal’s buying Videocon, and Adani buying Crescent Energy are some examples.
This Government brought the Financial Resolutions and Deposit Insurance Bill in 2017 and was forced to withdraw it. While withdrawing from Parliament, Mr. Piyush Goyal, then Finance Minister holding charge, told that it will be bought back at an appropriate time. If it happens, none of our deposits in the bank will be safe as the deposits can be converted into shares if the banks go bad and one may not get back the shares if the Bank fails. It is highly likely if things continue the same way.
Hope people understand that while Modiji is talking about Mughals, machili and Mangalasutra, everyone is affected by bad policies.
Thomas Franco is the former General Secretary of All India Bank Officers’ Confederation and a Steering Committee Member at the Global Labour University.
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