Data Shows Country's Elite Club Belongs To Upper Caste Communities
A recent report by Nitin Kumar Bharti, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, and Anmol Somanchi has revealed that more than 85% of total billionaire wealth in India belongs to the upper-caste communities.
The paper titled, Towards Tax Justice and Wealth Redistribution in India: Proposals Based on Latest Inequality, discusses the alarming rise of economic disparities in India. As per the study, people of the Scheduled Caste (SC) accounted for 2.6 percent of such wealth in 2022, compared with an 88.4 percent share of those from upper castes.
The now-published paper is a follow-up note on an earlier study, Income and wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj.
The report was made by analysing the income tax returns, national accounts, consumption, and wealth surveys, along with the riches list like Forbes. The major point the survey highlights that the caste system has played a large role in how inequality functions in India.
It says that most of the Indian billionaires are from the upper caste club while the Scheduled Tribes and OBCs are significantly underrepresented among the ultra-wealthy. “Let’s be clear: Indian billionaires are largely an upper caste club. A progressive wealth tax package of the kind we propose is most likely to benefit lower castes and the middle classes at the detriment of only a tiny number of ultra-wealthy upper caste families. In that respect, besides addressing extreme wealth inequality, such taxes could also play a small role in weakening the rigid link between social and economic inequalities in India,” Somanchi has said.
Further explaining the above-mentioned point, the report emphasises that STs have no representation among the wealthiest Indians. While OBCs own a little less than 10% of the billionaire wealth. This concludes that the upper castes are over-represented among the ultra-wealthy.
A significant change in the economic gap occurred during the Modi years. Between 2014 and 2022, the OBC share in billionaire wealth fell from 20% to below 10% while the UC share rose from 80% to 90%.
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To tackle this issue, the paper suggested a few compelling progressive wealth taxation and inheritance tax methods. By targeting the top 0.04% of the population, these measures could generate substantial revenues for vital social investments, promoting a more equitable and prosperous society.
Moreover, the paper sheds some light regarding the moral standpoint the government has to take as it is unethical to allow such an extreme concentration of wealth while a significant portion of the population struggles to meet their daily need.
The report proposed taxation aims to create a fairer society by redistributing wealth and investing in public goods that benefit the majority. The author has suggested that the tax packages should emerge from a broader democratic debate.
The proposed tax measure, could fund targeted social programs, and provide financial support and educational opportunities to historically marginalized communities. Scholarships for SC and ST students, job training programs for OBCs, and healthcare initiatives in underserved areas could significantly improve socio-economic mobility.
However, the study faced criticism from commentators by arguing on the accuracy of the inequality measures. The authors defended their methodology by emphasizing the conservative nature of their estimates due to the unaccounted offshore wealth and the underrepresentation of the very wealthy in household surveys.
