BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya on Wednesday came down heavily on the Congress party after Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda backed the party’s stand on redistribution of wealth, saying “Congress has decided to destroy India.”
In a post on X, Amit Malviya said, “Congress has decided to destroy India. Now, Sam Pitroda advocates a 50 percent inheritance tax for wealth redistribution.
This means 50 percent of whatever we build, with all our hard work and enterprise, will be taken away. 50 percent, besides all the tax we pay, which too will go up, if Congress prevails.”
Earlier in the day, emphasizing the need for policy toward wealth redistribution, Pitroda elaborated on the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in America.
“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 percent to his children, 55 percent 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,” Pitroda said.
“In India, you don’t have that. If somebody is worth 10 billion and he dies, his children get 10 billion and the public gets nothing…So these are the kinds of issues people will have to debate and discuss. When we talk about redistributing wealth, we are talking about new policies and new programs that are in the interest of the people and not in the interest of the super-rich only,” he added.
Pitroda also said that the subject of wealth distribution is strictly a ‘policy issue’ and he feels concerned about Prime Minister Modi after his remarks on Congress manifesto.
“This is a policy issue. Congress party would frame a policy through which the wealth distribution would be better. We don’t have a minimum wage (in India). If we come up with a minimum wage in the country saying you must pay so much money to the poor, that’s the distribution of wealth. Today, rich people don’t pay their peons, servants, and home help enough but they spend that money on vacation in Dubai and London…When you talk about the distribution of wealth, it is not that you sit on a chair and say I have this much money and I’ll be distributing it to everybody,” Pitroda said.
BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonwala also criticised the Congress saying that the party wanted to grab hard earned resources of the people.
“Congress, through Sam Pitroda the closest aide of Gandhi Vadra family, is essentially saying that 55% of what you earn will be taken away on your death. If you are a farmer- 55% of your land will be taken If you are a businessman – 55% of your business will be taken 55% of your savings you kept for your children Ironically Gandhis built a huge treasury for their own children & son in law but they want to grab your hard earned tax payed resources,” Poonawala said in a post on X.
In India, the concept of levying tax on inheritance does not exist as of now. In fact, the Inheritance or Estate Tax was abolished with effect from 1985.