Economist Sanjeev Sanyal, a vocal critic of wealth and inheritance taxes, recently slammed Oxfam and French economist Thomas Piketty for “exaggerating” income inequality in India. Oxfam, Piketty, and other international NGOs have advocated for a wealth tax on billionaires to address inequality in the country.
Sanyal argues that these organisations have ulterior motives and are aiming to undermine Indian billionaires and industrialists. “Many NGOs tend to exaggerate these issues. They have a different agenda. They want us to implement wealth tax, inheritance tax, and bring down our billionaires and industrialists,” he said in a podcast TRP, per Business Today.
During Indira Gandhi’s tenure, wealth and inheritance taxes were introduced but proved ineffective, Sanyal said, adding that most wealthy individuals either transfer their assets into trusts or move them abroad.
In March, a paper on India’s income inequality, co-authored by Piketty, reported that the income share of India’s top 1 per cent is among the highest globally, surpassing even that of South Africa, Brazil, and the US. The paper claimed that India is now more unequal than it was under British rule.
The paper proposed that a “super tax” of 2 per cent on the net wealth of the 167 wealthiest families for 2022-23 could generate 0.5 per cent of national income in revenue and create fiscal space for essential investments.
As a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, Sanyal said industrialists are being targeted for some time now.
“When I was in school, we used to always hear about Tata and Birla. Today, the new names are Adani and Ambani,” he said, adding that India needs these industrialists because they are the ones who will invest.
“We need thousands and millions of jobs. It’s not going to be Piketty or Oxfam or other NGOs that will create these jobs. Only the industrialists will do that. So, targeting these industrialists is wrong.”
Sanyal alleged that these NGOs praise American billionaires but criticise Indian billionaires. He also claimed that these big NGOs receive funds from people like George Soros and Bill Gates. “If you look at the balance sheets of these NGOs, whether it’s Thomas Piketty, Oxfam, or any of the thousands of such NGOs, you’ll see where their money comes from. They are funded by organisations like the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Gates Foundation, and Soros’ Open Society.”
“Who are these people? Bill Gates, Soros, Ford, Rockefeller – they are all American billionaires. So, these entities that preach to us are funded by American billionaires. In their own countries, they praise these billionaires. These organisations are completely funded by American billionaires,” the economist and historian said.
Oxfam, which tracks poverty, reports that the top 10 per cent of India’s population holds 77 per cent of the country’s wealth. According to their report, 73 per cent of the wealth generated in 2017 was concentrated in the hands of the richest 1 per cent, while the poorest half of the population—approximately 67 crore people—experienced only a 1 per cent increase in their wealth.
The report also noted that the number of billionaires in India increased from just 9 in 2000 to 119 in 2017. It had also estimated that between 2018 and 2022, India would be producing 70 new millionaires every day.
Sanyal argued that, given India’s population constitutes about 16 to 17 per cent of the global total, it should ideally have 16 to 17 per cent of the world’s billionaires. He stressed, however, that the government should also focus on supporting the poor. “I have always supported this. But it should not mean stifling our innovators and investors who contribute to large projects,” he said.
