Wealth Of Bottom 552 Million People Equal To 98 Richest Indians In 2021, Says Oxfam Report

New Delhi: The income divide in India worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic period with 40 more billionaires making it to the elite list while the income of 84 per cent households declined in 2021, stated Oxfam report.

The number of Indian billionaires grew from 102 to 142, stated the Oxfam report, “Inequality Kills’’, released on Sunday.

The India supplement of the global report also says that in 2021, the collective wealth of India’s 100 richest people hit a record high of Rs 57.3 lakh crore (USD 775 billion). In the same year, the share of the bottom 50 per cent of the population in national wealth was a mere 6 per cent.

The wealth of Indian billionaires increased from Rs 23.14 lakh crore (USD 313 billion) to Rs 53.16 lakh crore (USD 719 billion), during the pandemic (March 2020, through to November 30, 2021), the report mentions.

More than 4.6 crore Indians are estimated to have fallen into extreme poverty in 2020, nearly half of the global new poor according to the United Nations.

The report, released ahead of the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda, also found India’s healthcare budget saw a 10 per cent decline from revised estimates of 2020-21. There was a 6 per cent cut in allocation for education while the budgetary allocation for social security schemes declined from 1.5 per cent of the total Union budget to 0.6 per cent, the report also stated.

India has the third highest number of billionaires in the world

Behind China and the United States, India has more billionaires than France, Sweden and Switzerland combined, a 39 per cent increase in the number of billionaires in India in 2021. The report says, “this surge comes at a time when India’s unemployment rate was as high as 15 per cent in urban areas and the healthcare system was on the brink of collapse.’’

The Adanis (net worth multiplied eight times in one year)

Oxfam pointed out that about one-fifth of the increase in the wealth of the richest 100 families was accounted for by the surge in the fortunes of a single individual and business house – the Adanis.

“Gautam Adani, ranked 24th globally and second in India, witnessed his net worth multiply by eight times in a span of one year. From USD 8.9 billion in 2020 to USD 50.5 billion in 2021.

According to the real time data by Forbes, as of November 24, 2021, Adani’s net worth stands at USD 82.2 billion. This tremendous growth in a span of eight months, during India’s deadly second wave, also includes returns from Adani’s newly bought Carmichael mines in Australia, and a 74 per cent acquired stake in the Mumbai airport, the report says.

At the same time, Mukesh Ambani’s net worth doubled in 2021 to USD 85.5 billion from USD 36.8 billion in 2020, the report mentions.

Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said the global briefing points to the “stark reality of inequality contributing to the death of at least 21,000 people each day, or one person every four seconds”.

“The pandemic has set gender parity back from 99 years to now 135 years. Women collectively lost Rs 59.11 lakh crore (USD 800 billion) in earnings in 2020, with 1.3 crore fewer women in work now than in 2019. This had a direct impact on their access to sanitary products. If the richest percent’s income were to be taxed at one percent, 3,00,000 women can have access to free sanitary products for the entire year,” the report mentioned.

“It has never been so important to start righting the wrongs of this obscene inequality by targeting extreme wealth through taxation and getting that money back into the real economy to save lives,” Behar said.

The Oxfam India briefing also points out to the following:

Increase in indirect taxes as a share of the Union government revenue last four years while the proportion of corporate tax in the same was declining.

Additional tax imposed on fuel has risen 33 per cent in the first six months of 2020-21 against  79 per cent more than pre-Covid levels

Wealth tax “for the super-rich’’ was abolished in 2016

Stating that the wealth inequality in India is a result of an economic system rigged in favour of the super-rich, the report says the richest 98 Indians own the same wealth as the bottom 552 million people.

Offering a solution, it recommended one per cent surcharge on the richest 10 per cent of India’s population to fund inequality combating measures. These include higher investments in school education, universal healthcare and social security benefits like maternity leaves, paid leaves and pension for all Indians.