The focus on Inequality is completely missing from the Finance Minister’s Budget Speech and the Budget. Oxfam India’s recent report highlights that India’s 100 top billionaires saw their fortunes increase by Rs 12,97,822 crore during the crisis at the time when 84% households saw a fall in income.
No commitments were made to bring in a wealth tax or ensure growth was equitable and inclusive.
The budget failed to tap into this potential source of revenue at a time when the recent Fight Inequality Alliance survey suggests that 78% people were in favour of imposing a 2% COVID cess on individuals earning more than INR 2 crore per annum. It would be critical to note that the budget has a 80,000 crores shortfall to meet expenditure targets which it proposes to meet through market-borrowing. Instead, the budget offered several incentives to start-ups and businesses such as Rs1.97 lakh crore in next 5 years for PLI schemes in 13 Sectors and extended tax holiday for start-ups.
Marking its action week for fight against Inequality, the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum on Saturday organised a protest rally in the coastal neighbourhood of Ibrahim Hyderi where speakers decried the.
NationofChange
âAbolish billionairesâ: Oxfam report shows combined pandemic wealth of richest 10 people could pay to vaccinate entire world
âRigged economies are funnelling wealth to a rich elite who are riding out the pandemic in luxury, while those on the frontline of the pandemic. are struggling to pay the bills and put food on the table.â
“Abolish billionaires.”
That was the simple yet far-reaching message projected Saturday night onto the empty conference center in Davos, Switzerland where the World Economic Forum (WEF) usually meets during the annual summit of the world’s financial and governing elite.
“Davos is a symbol of a failed era,” said Jenny Ricks, global convenor for the Fight Inequality Alliance, whichâalong with the local Swiss group Campaxâorganized the isolated protest in the midst of the global coronavirus pandemic.
The Inequality Virus: Bringing together a world torn apart by coronavirus through a fair, just and sustainable economy
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The increase in the wealth of the ten richest is more than enough to both pay for a Covid-19 vaccine for everyone on the planet and reverse the rise in poverty caused by the pandemic. However, while the wealth of the richest increases, support for the poorest is being squeezed with the UK and other donors cutting aid to the world’s poorest.
Oxfam’s report The Inequality Virus found that Covid-19 has the potential to increase economic inequality in almost every country at once, the first time this has happened since records began over a century ago. It sets out how a rigged economy is enabling a super-rich elite to amass wealth in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression, while billions of people are struggling amid the worst job crisis in over 90 years. Unless rising inequality is tackled, half a billion more people could be living
The Inequality Virus was published on the opening day of the World Economic Forum’s virtual meeting, The Davos Agenda. The report shows that COVID-19 has the potential to increase economic inequality in almost every country at once, the first time this has happened since records began over a century ago. Rising inequality means it could take at least 14 times longer for the number of people living in poverty to return to pre-pandemic levels than it took for the fortunes of the top 1,000, mostly White male billionaires to bounce back. In Canada, the fortunes of the country’s 44 billionaires have increased by almost $63.5 billion (CAD) since March 2020. Oxfam estimates this would be enough to give every one of the 3.8 million poorest people in Canada a cheque for $16,823 (CAD).