According to a Monday study, India’s richest 1% hold more than 40% of the nation’s wealth, while the bottom half share just 3%.

Oxfam International released the India supplement of its annual inequality report on the first day of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting here, saying that taxing India’s ten richest at 5% could raise enough money to send children back to school. “A one-off tax on unrealized gains from 2017–2021 on just one billionaire, Gautam Adani, could have earned Rs 1.79 lakh crore, enough to employ more than five million Indian primary school teachers for a year,” it added.

“Survival of the Richest” reported that if India’s billionaires were taxed once at 2 percent on their entire fortune, it would support the nourishment of malnourished people for three years at Rs 40,423 crore. “A one-time tax of 5% on the 10 richest billionaires in the country (Rs 1.37 lakh crore) is more than 1.5 times the amounts predicted by the Health and Family Welfare Ministry (Rs 86,200 crore) and the Ministry of Ayush (Rs 3,050 crore) for 2022-23,” it added.

According to the research, women earned 63 paise for every rupee men earned.

Scheduled Castes and rural employees earned 55% of what advantaged social groups earned and 50% of urban incomes between 2018 and 2019. “Taxing the top 100 Indian billionaires at 2.5 percent or the top 10 at 5 percent would practically cover the total sum required to bring the youngsters back into school,” it continued.

Oxfam said the report examines inequality in India using qualitative and quantitative data.

Forbes and Credit Suisse were utilised to examine wealth inequality and billionaire wealth, while NSS, Union budget records, parliamentary inquiries, and other official sources supported the report’s claims.

Oxfam reported that India’s billionaires have gained 121 percent, or Rs 3,608 crore every day, since the pandemic began. In 2021-22, 64% of the Rs 14.83 lakh crore in Goods and Services Tax (GST) came from the poorest 50%, while only 3% came from the top 10%.

Oxfam reported 166 Indian billionaires in 2022, up from 102 in 2020.

It claimed that India’s 100 richest had USD 660 billion (Rs 54.12 lakh crore), enough to cover the Union Budget for over 18 months. Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said, “The country’s marginalised – Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Women and informal sector workers are continuing to suffer under a system which supports the survival of the affluent.

“The poor pay more taxes and spend more on necessities than the wealthier. Tax the wealthiest and make them pay their fair share.” Behar advised the Union finance minister to pursue progressive tax policies including wealth and inheritance taxes, which have historically reduced inequality.

Citing a statewide study by Fight Inequality Alliance India (FIA India) in 2021, Oxfam stated it found that more than 80 per cent of people in India support tax on the wealthiest and corporations who achieved record profits during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“More than 90 per cent participants demanded budget measures to address inequality such as full social security, right to health and growth of budget to prevent gender-based violence,” it added.

“It’s time we dismantle the comforting illusion that tax cuts for the affluent result in their income magically ‘trickling down’ to everyone else. Taxing the super-rich is the strategic precondition to lowering inequality and resuscitating democracy. “We need to do this for innovation. For stronger public services and for happier and healthier societies,” stated Gabriela Bucher, Executive Director of Oxfam International.

Oxfam India requested the Union finance minister to adopt one-off solidarity wealth taxes and windfall taxes to end crisis profiteering. It also advocated a permanent increase in taxes on the richest 1 per cent and specifically hike taxes on capital gains, which are subject to lower tax rates than other sources of income.

Oxfam also recommended for inheritance, property, and land taxes, as well as net wealth taxes, while raising the budgetary allocation of the health sector to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025, as anticipated in the National Health Policy. Oxfam said it also wants public health services to be strengthened and financial allocation for education to be enhanced to the global standard of 6 per cent of GDP.

“Ensure workers in official and informal sector are given basic minimum salaries. The minimum salaries should be at level with living wages which is vital for living a life with dignity,” it stated.