According to the report, our country is ranked seventh in the list of top wealthiest countries in the world but on a per capita basis, the average Indian is quite poor. This is a clear case of lopsided growth of our national body that can turn out to be malignant if not immediately taken care of. While the richest 10 per cent of our population has 76.3 per cent of nation’s wealth, the poorest half is reeling with a meagre 4.1 per cent. This glaring inequality is well reflected in the 2016 Global Slavery Index recently released by Australia based human right group Walk Free Foundation.
The report says that India has the highest absolute numbers of people trapped in slavery with 18.35 million slaves. It was 14.3 million in the last report in 2014. It means four million more people have been enslaved during this period. Therefore, such rhetoric that the last two years have ushered in good days will simply add insult to their injury. When our countrymen are languishing at 130th position of human development index, when four out of ten children of our country are malnourished and stunted, when as many as 116 farmers and laborers committed suicide only within the first three months of this year, India needs to judiciously set her priorities.
One of the reasons for India’s nasty performance in human development is definitely our indirect tax regime. Poorest of the poor persons are to cough up substantial and the same amount of indirect tax as their creamy counterparts when they are to buy anything from salt to slippers and from food to medicine. While direct taxes depend on the taxpayer’s ability to pay, indirect taxes being blind to the economic status of the taxpayers, hit poor people the hardest. Moreover, the collection of an indirect tax often involves large expenses and there is also possibility of evasion.
Given huge income disparity among Indians, the budget should rely more on direct taxes which is just for all. Secondly, more than two third of total subsidy is dished out to the creamy layer of our country. This practice must be stopped and the poor should get total subsidy and sufficient cover of social security.
