Davos: Indian billionaires saw their fortunes swell by Rs. 2,200 crore every day last year, with the top 1 per cent of the country’s richest getting richer by 39 per cent as against just 3 per cent increase in wealth for the bottom half of the population, an Oxfam study said on Monday.
 
Unpaid work done by women across the globe amounted to a staggering $10 trillion a year, which is 43 times the annual turnover of the world’s biggest company Apple, the report said.
 
Globally, billionaires’ fortunes rose by 12 per cent or $2.5 billion a day in 2018, whereas the poorest half of the world’s population saw their wealth decline by 11 per cent, the international rights group said in its annual study released before the start of the five-day World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in this Swiss ski resort town.   
 
The report added that the combined revenue and capital expenditure of the Centre and all the states for medical, public health, sanitation and water supply is Rs 2,08,166 crore (a little more than Rs 2 lakh crore) — which is less than the wealth of country’s richest man Mukesh Ambani at Rs 2.8 lakh crore. That means that the government spent less on public healthcare for Indians than the entire wealth of Mukesh Ambani.
 
Oxfam further said that 13.6 crore Indians, who make up the poorest 10 per cent of the country, continued to remain in debt since 2004.   
 
There are now 119 billionaires in India with their combined wealth touching $440 billion or approximately Rs 30 lakh crore in comparison to $325.5 billion in 2017.
 
Asking the political and business leaders who have gathered in Davos for the annual jamboree of the rich and powerful of the world to take urgent steps to tackle the growing rich-poor divide, Oxfam said this increasing inequality is undermining the fight against poverty, damaging economies and fuelling public anger across the globe.    
 
Oxfam International Executive Director Winnie Byanyima, one of the key participants at the WEF summit, said it is “morally outrageous” that a few wealthy individuals are amassing a growing share of India’s wealth, while the poor are struggling to eat their next meal or pay for their child’s medicines.  “If this obscene inequality between the top 1 per cent and the rest of India continues then it will lead to a complete collapse of the social and democratic structure of this country,” she added.   
 
Noting that wealth is becoming even more concentrated, Oxfam said 26 people now own the same as the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity, down from 44 people last year.   
 
The world’s richest man Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, saw his fortune increase to $112 billion and just 1 per cent of his fortune is equivalent to the whole health budget for Ethiopia, a country of 115 million people.   
 
“India’s top 10 per cent of the population holds 77.4 per cent of the total national wealth. The contrast is even sharper for the top 1 per cent that holds 51.53 per cent of the national wealth. The bottom 60 per cent, the majority of the population, own merely 4.8 per cent of the national wealth. Wealth of top 9 billionaires is equivalent to the wealth of the bottom 50 per cent of the population,” Oxfam said while noting that high level of wealth disparity subverts democracy.
 
Between 2018 and 2022, India is estimated to produce 70 new dollar millionaires every day, Oxfam said.   
 
“It (the survey) reveals how governments are exacerbating inequality by underfunding public services, such as healthcare and education, on the one hand, while under taxing corporations and the wealthy, and failing to clamp down on tax dodging on the other,” Oxfam India CEO Amitabh Behar said.   
 
The survey also shows that women and girls are hardest hit by rising economic inequality, he added.   
 
“The size of one’s bank account should not dictate how many years your children spend in school, or how long you live — yet this is the reality in too many countries across the globe. While corporations and the super-rich enjoy low tax bills, millions of girls are denied a decent education and women are dying for lack of maternity care,” Byanyima said.
 
“Economic inequality plagued by caste, class, gender and religion need to be tackled on a war-footing,” Oxfam India chief Amitabh Behar said.
 
According to the Oxfam report, India added 18 new billionaires last year, raising the total number of billionaires to 119, while their wealth crossed the $400 billion (Rs. 28 lakh crore) mark for the first time.
 
It rose from $325.5 billion in 2017 to $440.1 billion in 2018, making it the single largest annual increase since the 2008 global financial crisis.   
 
Oxfam further said getting India’s richest 1 per cent pay just 0.5 per cent extra tax on their wealth could raise enough money enough to increase the government spending on health by 50 per cent.   
 
Globally, Oxfam said the tax rates for wealthy individuals and corporations have been cut dramatically.   
 
While billionaire wealth soars, public services are suffering from chronic underfunding or being outsourced to private companies that exclude the poorest people, Oxfam said.   
 
The rights group said in many countries including India, a decent education or quality healthcare has become a luxury only the rich can afford.   
 
“Children from poor families in India are three times more likely to die before their first birthday than children from rich families,” it added.   
 
Oxfam said its calculations are based on the latest comprehensive data sources available publicly, including from the Credit Suisse Wealth Databook and the annual Forbes Billionaires List.
 

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विश्व आर्थिक मंच की यहां होने वाली वाषिर्क बैठक से पहले अधिकार समूह ऑक्सफैम द्वारा जारी एक अध्ययन के अनुसार भारत के केवल 57 अरबपतियों के अब कुल 216 अरब डॉलर की संपत्ति है जो देश की करीब 70 प्रतिशत आबादी की कुल संपत्ति के बराबर है।

वैश्विक आधार पर यही स्थिति आठ अरबपतियों की है जिनके पास पूरे विश्व की 50 प्रतिशत आबादी के बराबर संपत्ति है।

अध्ययन में कहा गया है कि भारत में 84 अरबपति हैं जिनकी कुल संपत्ति 248 अरब डॉलर है। इनमें 19.3 अरब डॉलर की संपत्ति के साथ मुकेश अंबानी शीर्ष पर हैं। इसके बाद दिलीप सांघवी की संपत्ति 16.7 अरब डॉलर और अजीम प्रेमजी की संपत्ति 15 अरब डॉलर है। देश की कुल संपत्ति 3100 अरब डॉलर है।

इस वर्ष विश्व की कुल संपत्ति 2.56 लाख अरब डॉलर आंकी गई है और इसमें से करीब 6500 अरब डॉलर संपत्ति पर अरबपतियों का आधिपत्य है। इसमें 75 अरब डॉलर की संपत्ति के साथ बिल गेट्स शीर्ष पर हैं। इसके बाद 67 अरब डॉलर की संपत्ति वाले एमैनसियो ऑर्टेगा और 60.8 अरब डॉलर की संपत्ति वाले वारेन बफेट का नाम है।

ऑक्सफैम ने ‘99 प्रतिशत लोगों के लिए एक अर्थव्यवस्था’ शीषर्क से एक रपट में यह सारे आंकड़े पेश किए हैं।

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Fifty-seven billionaires in India possess as much wealth as the poorest 70% of the country, according to a report on global inequality released on Monday by Oxfam, an international confederation of 18 non-governmental organisations.

By comparison, eight men across the world are as wealthy as the poorest 50% of the global population, the report said. A mere 500 people will bequeath wealth worth $2.1 trillion – more than the current gross domestic product of India – to their heirs over the next 20 years.

Drawing from news reports and its own studies, the Oxfam paper points to growing gaps in income inequality across the world. In India, for instance, the chief executive officer of a leading information technology company earns 416 times more than the firm’s average employee. This is reflected in India’s wealth distribution. The richest 10% in India own 80% of its wealth, while the richest 1% possess 58% of all wealth.

Note: Percentages in the first decile are negative because they represent negative wealth, that is debt. This amounts to -$21 billion, or -0.68% of India's wealth.

Even income growth has been uneven over the years. Between 1988 and 2011, incomes of the poorest 10% of Indians rose by $29, or around Rs 2,000, at an increase of 1% each year. For the richest 10% in the same period, incomes increased by almost Rs 40,000, with an annual increase of 25%.

Oxfam lists several reasons for this inequality, including crony capitalism and corporations that squeeze employees at lower rungs to maximise salaries and dividends for high-level executives and shareholders. This gets exacerbated in the current economic framework, Oxfam argues, since the surest way to grow wealth is to possess it. Those who are most rich can afford the best investment advice. Despite this growth of wealth, governments across the world lose taxes and valuable income with the super-rich depositing their wealth in tax havens abroad and manipulating political systems to do so without repercussion.

Oxfam’s report comes a week after HSBC released a study on social sector spending in India on January 10. The report, timed between demonetisation and the budget, notes that India’s expenditure on social sectors such as health and education is far lower than global and emerging market standards. However, this expenditure has far greater impact on growth than capital expenditure on infrastructure.

In this chart, EM stands for 'emerging markets'. Source: World Development Indicators, HSBC.

In this chart, EM stands for 'emerging markets'. Source: World Development Indicators, HSBC

Governments tend to ignore such expenditure, the report argues, because their political terms last five years, whereas it takes around six years for the clear benefits of social expenditure to show.

In this chart, EM stands for 'emerging markets'. Source: HSBC estimates

Courtesy: Scroll.in

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