Mr. Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director, Oxfam said, “ “The scale of global inequality is quite simply staggering,” The gap between the richest& the rest is widening fast.”
The world’s richest added $ 9200 crore to their collective fortune in 2014, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The biggest gainer was Mr. Jack Ma, the co-founder of China’s e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding.
US billionaires Mr. Warren Buffett and Mr. Mark Zuckerberg are also among the top gainers, the index show.
As the wealth gap widens, governments from US to China are proposing new taxes on their most affluent citizens. More than a 100 crore people live on less than $1.25 a day, according to Oxfam.
US president Mr. Barack Obama plans to limit profits Americans make from investments & impose capital-gain taxes on inherited assets. Beijing’s tax officials recently started asking citizens to report their earnings overseas, according to the New York Times.
One-fifth (20%) of global billionaires “have interests in the financial and insurance sectors” and saw their cash wealth climb 11% in the past year, Oxfam said.
The Oxfam study uses data from Credit Suisse’s global wealth report & Forbes.
“Oxfam is concerned that the lobbying power of these sectors is a major barrier in the way of reforming the global tax system,” according to the statement.
Obama wants to increase top tax rate on capital gains and dividends to 28% from 23.8%. The rate was 15% when he took office in 2009. He would also impose capital-gains taxes on asset transfers at death, ending what the White House calls “the largest capital gains loophole.”
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