Economist Gautam Sen terms inheritance tax idea as unrealistic; says whoever wants this ‘not a friend of India’

There is no inheritance tax in the US, which has estate and gift taxes, paid by around 4,000 people in the entire country, says Sen

PGurus Newsdesk

May 8, 2024

There is no inheritance tax in the US, which has estate and gift taxes, paid by around 4,000 people in the entire country, says Sen

‘Economy will come to a halt’: Economist Gautam Sen on inheritance tax

In an interview with news agency ANI, Economist Gautam Sen has said the idea of inheritance tax is not realistic. He described Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s proposal of a “wealth survey” as impractical.

Sen said that surveying all households and businesses for wealth redistribution was impractical and would lead to economic chaos.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s idea of redistribution of wealth, economist Gautam Sen said, “won’t work in India.”

He continued, “As I said, only about 12 crore people have wealth in the excess of 102 crores each. But almost all of these have invested in their businesses. So, you will have to liquidate their businesses in order to take away their wealth. The economy will come to a halt.”

He said, “My argument is that the total amount of tax you will generate from taking everything away from anybody who has something which is less than one and a half percent of the population will not make the remaining 98-99% better off. They would simply suffer. Bear in mind, you will have to do this survey every two years. We have better redistribution in the last 10 years from growth, from real goods.”

#WATCH | On Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda’s remark regarding ‘Inheritance Tax’, economist Gautam Sen says, “First of all, there is no Inheritance Tax in the US. They don’t have Inheritance Tax, it is called Estate Duty and Gift Tax. In the US, it is paid by 0.14% of the… pic.twitter.com/s9kibe0a5j

— ANI (@ANI) May 8, 2024

Talking about Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda‘s remark regarding ‘Inheritance Tax’, Gautam Sen said, “In India, 2.4% or a little bit fewer people pay Income Tax. In that group, I think not more than 1.2 million have personal assets which are mainly in their own residence. In order for them to be forced to surrender, you have to close their businesses down. That means the following year, there will be economic chaos.”

Sen said, “First of all, there is no inheritance tax in the US. They don’t have an inheritance tax; it is called estate duty and gift tax. In the US, it is paid by 0.14 percent of the deceased till 2022 – of 2.5 million deceased only 0.14 percent, i.e. 4,000 people in the entire US are subject to Estate Duty. Most estates are exempt from paying taxes because the exemption limit is “very high” at $13.6 million.”

He further added, “Whoever thought of this idea was not thinking very realistically, what we have now is a very vast improvement on what we used to have before – we have this incredible combination which has almost never been achieved, of combining wealth creation through investment, infrastructure with redistribution.”

“Nobody who wants to do this is a friend of India. India’s political and economic chaos will immediately invite a Sino-Pakistani invasion because they are waiting for opportunities to settle scores with India and seize Indian territory. So, whoever wants to do this is not a friend of India,” he said.

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