New Delhi: Thomas Piketty, a French economist and novelist, stated on Friday that given India’s high levels of inequality, more should be done to tax its super-rich.
The author of the best-selling book “Capital in the 21st Century” urged India to fulfil a July commitment made by the finance ministers of the Group of 20 major countries to work together to tax the wealthiest people in the world.
Piketty stated, “India should be active in taxing the rich,” during a gathering hosted by the Delhi School of Economics and the think tank Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), located in Delhi.
He said that by enacting a 2% wealth tax on individuals with assets above 100 million rupees ($1.18 million) and a 33% inheritance tax on property valued at least that much, India could increase yearly income by 2.73% of its gross domestic product.
Citing a 2024 research he co-authored and released by the World Inequality Lab, Piketty claimed that the share of national income controlled by the richest 1% of Indians now exceeded that of their counterparts in the US and Brazil.
