INDIA: Where does the poverty-wealth gap stand in the world’s fifth largest economy?

India marches forward towards becoming the world’s third-largest economy after beating Germany and Japan in the years to come. The hope delights Indians and now expectations are even higher. People want the world’s largest democracy to be the world’s largest economy also.

Nevertheless, the real condition of this would be the third largest wealthy country in the world by 2030 has another picture that is equally transparent and cannot be ignored on the surface of ground reality.

Poverty in India is also growing with the growth of wealth simultaneously. The shocking reality shows that the number of those who become rich is only in the hundreds whereas the number of those who become poor, number in crores. The latest data from Oxfam reveals that in the last two years, only sixty-four billionaires have increased. But where is the data which could display the number of the poor?

The assets of only 100 Indian billionaires are worth Rs 54.12 lakh crore. The fact clearly tells that they have the money which is more than the budget of the Indian government for one and a half years. Though debatable still the situation is this, the wealth of all billionaires is barely taxed at 2 percent. And the reality is that this money can feed all the hungry people of the country for the next three years.

Now should the government impose a little more tax on these rich Indians along with reducing tax on consumer goods, only the poor Indians will be benefited the most then.

Ground reality shows today that just one percent of people consume forty percent of the wealth that is India generates every year, while 50 percent of people get hold of only 3 percent of it. Rich people keep four cars in their homes and the poor do not get even four pieces of bread for eating properly.

The biggest irony is that out of these fifty percent of people, the government collects a total of sixty-four percent of the GST money, on the other hand, the country’s ten percent richest people pay merely three percent tax. Significantly, the bottom fifty percent of folks pay six times the tax in comparison with the top ten percent. Talk about poor and middle-class people, they are compelled to pay a lot of tax on purchasing things for their daily utilities for it is silently deducted without informing them.

Resultantly, the total wealth of seventy crore people in India is less than that of only twenty-one billionaires of the country. Their assets have gone up by one hundred and twenty-one percent in a year. Now that the new budget is around the corner, probably the government will take notice of these latest figures and will opt for making some improvements in the country’s tax system.

READ THIS ALSO:  Do you know where Twitter is going to?

No matter how wealthy our India becomes, if the growing distance between poverty and richness increases heret, then that prosperity is of no use. That will turn our democracy into another democracy what we see around the world, any day. History has witnessed this in France, Russia and China in the last twenty decades.