74% Indians want super-rich to be taxed to fund inequality expenses: Survey

Seventy-four per cent Indians support the idea of a wealth tax being imposed on the super-rich to fund expenses of global hunger, inequality and climate crisis, and 71 per cent Indians favour a universal basic income, reveals a new global survey.

Overall, the survey by Earth4All initiative and Global Commons Alliance covering 22,000 respondents across the world’s biggest economies including India, found that 68 per cent participants all over the world agreed that high-income individuals and corporations should be taxed to meet the costs of global hunger and inequality, besides climate initiatives. Respondents of the survey also supported a “polluter pays” policy when it comes to protecting the environment.

The survey report comes at a time when finance ministers of G20 nations are seriously considering imposing a wealth tax on the super-rich next month. The idea to tax the super-rich has been doing the rounds for over a decade now and Brazil, currently the president of G20, aims to garner consensus around the proposal at the upcoming G20 finance ministers’ meet.

If the G20 proposal is passed, billionaires all across would have to pay a minimum of 2 per cent of their total wealth as an annual tax.

WORK-LIFE BALANCE MATTERS

Among other India-specific highlights in the survey, 71 per cent of Indians support the idea of a universal basic income while 76 per cent say they want an improved work-life balance. As much as 74 per cent want policies that aid healthy diet habits that cut emissions while 81 per cent Indians support a shift to “wellbeing economies” that give as much importance to health and environment as economic growth.

About 68 per cent Indians feel there is a need for dramatic global action over the next decade to boost economy across sectors as diverse as industry, food, electricity, construction and transport.