New Delhi: Leading the BJP’s attack over senior Congress leader Sam Pitroda’s comments, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today alleged that the Opposition party plans to tax inheritance passed down from parents to their children. The Congress has distanced itself from Mr Pitroda’s remarks and said they do not reflect the party’s position.
Addressing a poll rally at Chhattisgarh’s Surguja, the Prime Minister said the Congress’s “dangerous intentions are coming out in the open”.
Referring to Mr Pitroda, he said, “The advisor of the prince of the Congress royal family had earlier said that the middle class should be taxed more. Now they have gone further ahead. Now Congress is saying that it will impose an Inheritance Tax and tax the inheritance received by people from their parents.”
“The wealth you accumulate with your hard work won’t pass down to your children. The Congress’s hand will snatch it. The Congress’s mantra is ‘loot during your lifetime, loot after your death’,” the Prime Minister said, taking a cue from Life Insurance Corporation’s “Zindagi ke saath bhi, Zindagi ke baad bhi” tagline.
“As long as you live, Congress’s high taxation will make you suffer. When you are dead, they will put the burden of inheritance tax,” he said.
Mr Pitroda, who leads the overseas wing of the Congress, is at the centre of a huge row after his remarks during an interview with news agency ANI. While targeting the Prime Minister over his allegations that the Congress plans to redistribute the nation’s wealth and that will take property and jewellery if it comes to power, Mr Pitroda said the Congress’s manifesto is well-drafted and accused the BJP of making up stories.
The Congress, he said, has always focused on the people at the bottom of the economic pyramid, whether they are OBCs, Muslims, Dalits or tribals. “Billionaires don’t need our help. It is the poor people who need our help. Inequality has substantially increased in the last 10 years,” he said.
“This doesn’t mean that you are going to take your wealth and give it to somebody. This means creating new policies so that the concentration of wealth can be prevented. It’s like a Monopoly Act,” he said.
He then cited a US example that snowballed into a controversy. “In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has 100 million USD worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer probably 45 per cent to his children, 55 per cent is grabbed by the government. That’s an interesting law. It says you in your generation, made wealth and you are leaving now, you must leave your wealth for the public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair,” Mr Pitroda said.
