Hyderabad: Advocate Prashant Bhushan on Friday, April 26 asked the Congress Party to be on the front foot regarding Sam Pitroda’s remarks on inheritance tax saying 'it would be levied only on crorepatis, and not on common people.'
In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Bhushan posted: "Congress Party should be on the front foot on Sam Pitroda’s remarks on inheritance tax. This tax will be levied only on crorepatis, not on common people. The money would be used for development & funding employment. Every rich country has this tax."
Earlier, in an interview with a news agency, chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, Pitroda had emphasised the need for policy toward wealth redistribution, and 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 per cent to his children, 55 per cent 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.
He also added saying that in India, one does not 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 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.
Pitroda’s clarification came after the Congress party distanced itself from his remarks and after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders slammed him over his remarks on the redistribution of wealth.
“It is unfortunate that what I said as an individual on inheritance tax in the US is twisted by Godi media to divert attention from what lies PM is spreading about Congress manifesto. PM’s comments Mangal Sutra & gold snatching is simply unreal,” Sam Pitroda said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).
Commenting on Bhushan's tweet, users commented, voicing their take on the issue. A user wrote: As the economy opens up , there will be more crorepatis added, even a common man who has ideas and vision can be a crorepatis tomorrow... You guys know what you are even talking about.
Another user wrote: Agree, even though Congress didn't announce this yet. This could really change the fate of this country. A person commented: No one will be motivated to create wealth by this kind of laws. Capitalism needs incentives, for themselves and whomever they want to give it back! Are you sure government will use properly their hard earn money? Shame that you are still not learning from the history
Bhushan's post on X comes a day after the Supreme Court said it is not the controlling authority for elections and cannot dictate the functioning of Election Commission of India (ECI), a constitutional authority after advocate Prashant Bhushan, for Association For Democratic Reforms, referred to the RTI reply about the microcontroller of Bharat Electronics and submitted, “This microcontroller has a flash memory also so therefore to say that this microcontroller is not reprogrammable is not correct. That is exactly what the citizen commission also said after examining…flash memory is always reprogrammable”.
Responding to concerns raised by Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for petitioner Association for Democratic Reforms, the court said, "If you are predisposed about a thought-process, then we cannot help you... we are not here to change your thought process."
During the hearing, the Court sought clarification from the EC on certain aspects regarding the functioning of the EVMs, including whether the microcontrollers fitted in them are reprogrammable, and summoned a senior poll panel official at 2 PM.
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