74% Indians Support Wealth Tax On Super Rich, Climate Reforms: Survey

A survey has revealed that 68 percent of people in G20 countries, including 74 percent in India, support the idea of a wealth tax on the super-rich. This comes as G20 finance ministers prepare to consider a tax on the wealthiest on the planet in order to address global hunger, inequality and the climate crisis.

The survey by the Global Commons Alliance and the Earth4All initiative covered 22,000 citizens in the world’s largest economies.

Since 2013, the proposal for a levy on the super-rich has been under discussion, with international support on the issue growing over the years.

Brazil, which is the current president of the G20, aims to build consensus on the taxation of wealth. It is likely to push for a joint declaration at a meeting of G20 finance ministers in July.

On Tuesday, Gabriel Zucman, a French economist and a key influencer behind Brazil’s G20 proposal for progressive international taxation to promote tax justice, is expected to release a report, outlining how “a global minimum tax on the ultra-rich” could work and how much it could raise.

The super-rich pay significantly less tax than the ordinary people, according to Zucman. The proposal aims to establish a new international standard: billionaires in every country would be required to pay at least 2 per cent of their wealth in taxes annually.

“Indians want a giant leap on climate and nature — 68 per cent demand dramatic reforms across all economic sectors within the next decade. This is a strong mandate for planetary stewardship that cannot be ignored,” said Owen Gaffney, co-lead of Earth4All.

Around 74 percent of Indians support taxing wealth. Gaffney said that tax on high incomes and corporations to fund climate initiatives alongside a ‘polluter pays’ approach with income redistribution are also strongly supported.

Seventy-six percent Indians seek a better work-life balance, 74 percent support policies that encourage healthy diets to cut emissions and seventy-one per cent endorse universal basic income. Meanwhile, sixty-eight per cent of Indians believe the world needs to take dramatic action in the next decade across all sectors of the economy — transport, buildings, electricity generation, industry, and food.

Also, eighty-one per cent of the Indians surveyed support a shift to “wellbeing economies”; these are economies that have a stronger focus on health and the environment than a narrow focus on economic growth.