Sravasti Dasgupta
Mon, January 16, 2023
The richest one per cent in India own more than 40 per cent of the country’s total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of all wealth, according to a new report.
The report by Oxfam titled “Survival of the Richest” was released on Monday to coincide with the opening day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.
It revealed that the total number of billionaires in India increased from 102 in 2020 to 166 in 2022. The combined wealth of India’s 100 richest has touched $660bn (£540bn) – an amount that could fund the federal government’s budget for more than 18 months.
“A one-off tax on unrealised gains from 2017-2021 on just one billionaire, Gautam Adani, could have raised Rs 1.79 trillion, enough to employ more than five million Indian primary schoolteachers for a year,” the report said.
Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said that India is “on a fast track to becoming a country only for the rich”.
“The number of hungry Indians increased to 350 million in 2022 from 190 million in 2018,” he said in a statement.
“After witnessing mass suffering and death during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was critical that the government of India took aggressive measures to address injustice and poverty. But it has unfortunately lost the plot,” he said.
Globally, the report found that the richest 1 per cent took nearly two-thirds of all new wealth worth $42 trillion created since 2020, almost twice as much money as the bottom 99 per cent of the world’s population.
During the past decade, the richest 1 per cent had captured around half of all new wealth.
Elsewhere, Oxfam’s report found that the richest 1 per cent of people in the UK are now wealthier than 70 per cent of the population combined.
It said that the 685,500 richest people in Britain are worth a total of £2.8 trillion, compared with 48 million people in the UK whose combined wealth totals £2.4 trillion.
Gabriela Bucher, executive director of Oxfam International, said: “While ordinary people are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food, the super-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams. Just two years in, this decade is shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires – a roaring ‘20s boom for the world’s richest.”
The report highlighted that billionaire wealth surged in 2022 with rapidly rising food and energy profits. It added that 95 food and energy corporations have more than doubled their profits in 2022.
“They made $306bn in windfall profits, and paid out $257bn (84 per cent) of that to rich shareholders. The Walton dynasty, which owns half of Walmart, received $8.5bn over the last year. Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, owner of major energy corporations, has seen this wealth soar by $42bn (46 per cent) in 2022 alone. Excess corporate profits have driven at least half of inflation in Australia, the US and the UK.”
The report has called on governments to Introduce one-off solidarity wealth taxes and windfall taxes to end crisis profiteering.
It also suggests that taxing “the wealth of the richest 1 per cent at rates high enough to significantly reduce the numbers and wealth of the richest people, and redistribute these resources.”
Richest 1% of Irish people own more than a quarter of country’s wealth – Oxfam
Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
Mon, 16 January 2023
The richest 1% of Irish people have more than a quarter of the country’s wealth, according to a report from anti-poverty charity Oxfam.
The number of Irish people with individual wealth of more than 46.6 million euro has more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, from 655 to 1,435.
Oxfam said that for every 93.15 euro of wealth created in the last ten years, 31.67 euro has gone to the richest 1% and less than 0.5 euro to the bottom 50%.
According to the charity, this means that the richest 1% have gained 70 times more wealth than the bottom 50% in the last 10 years.
Oxfam Ireland is calling for a tax on Irish wealth at graduated rates of 2%, 3% and 5% above a threshold of 4.7 million euro, which it said would raise billions annually “with the potential to transform Irish public services”.
The charity said there should be an international approach to taxing the super-rich through permanent wealth taxes and temporary windfall taxes, and that governments should aim to halve the wealth of, and the number of, billionaires.
Chief executive of Oxfam Ireland Jim Clarken said: “This rising wealth at the top and rising poverty for the rest are two sides of the same coin, proof that our economic system is functioning exactly how the rich and powerful designed it to.
“It was 10 years ago when we first sounded the alarm about extreme inequality at the World Economic Forum and yet since then the world’s billionaires have almost doubled their wealth.
“As crisis after crisis hits the poorest people hardest, it’s time for governments, including Ireland’s, to tax the rich.
“The very existence of billionaires while out-of-control inequality rises, is damning proof of policy failure.”
Oxfam’s Survival of the Richest report is published to coincide with the gathering of world leaders and business elites in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Michael McGrath are among those attending the summit this week.
After Mr McGrath attends a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Monday, and the Ecofin Council on Tuesday, he will travel to Davos where he will take part in a panel discussion called Jobs Consortium: Towards a New Vision for the Future of Work.
Mr McGrath will also host a dinner with IDA client companies who are deemed to be key investors in Ireland.
Speaking ahead of the trip, Mr McGrath said the World Economic Forum provides “a valuable opportunity” for Ireland to engage with senior political and business leaders from across the world.
“I will devote a lot of my time at the Forum to meeting current and potential job-creators in Ireland, with a view to promoting the expansion of existing investments and the establishment of new ones,” he said.
Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA
Mon, 16 January 2023
The richest 1% of Irish people have more than a quarter of the country’s wealth, according to a report from anti-poverty charity Oxfam.
The number of Irish people with individual wealth of more than 46.6 million euro has more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, from 655 to 1,435.
Oxfam said that for every 93.15 euro of wealth created in the last ten years, 31.67 euro has gone to the richest 1% and less than 0.5 euro to the bottom 50%.
According to the charity, this means that the richest 1% have gained 70 times more wealth than the bottom 50% in the last 10 years.
Oxfam Ireland is calling for a tax on Irish wealth at graduated rates of 2%, 3% and 5% above a threshold of 4.7 million euro, which it said would raise billions annually “with the potential to transform Irish public services”.
The charity said there should be an international approach to taxing the super-rich through permanent wealth taxes and temporary windfall taxes, and that governments should aim to halve the wealth of, and the number of, billionaires.
Chief executive of Oxfam Ireland Jim Clarken said: “This rising wealth at the top and rising poverty for the rest are two sides of the same coin, proof that our economic system is functioning exactly how the rich and powerful designed it to.
“It was 10 years ago when we first sounded the alarm about extreme inequality at the World Economic Forum and yet since then the world’s billionaires have almost doubled their wealth.
“As crisis after crisis hits the poorest people hardest, it’s time for governments, including Ireland’s, to tax the rich.
“The very existence of billionaires while out-of-control inequality rises, is damning proof of policy failure.”
Oxfam’s Survival of the Richest report is published to coincide with the gathering of world leaders and business elites in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Michael McGrath are among those attending the summit this week.
After Mr McGrath attends a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Monday, and the Ecofin Council on Tuesday, he will travel to Davos where he will take part in a panel discussion called Jobs Consortium: Towards a New Vision for the Future of Work.
Mr McGrath will also host a dinner with IDA client companies who are deemed to be key investors in Ireland.
Speaking ahead of the trip, Mr McGrath said the World Economic Forum provides “a valuable opportunity” for Ireland to engage with senior political and business leaders from across the world.
“I will devote a lot of my time at the Forum to meeting current and potential job-creators in Ireland, with a view to promoting the expansion of existing investments and the establishment of new ones,” he said.
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