Explained | The Infosys assets controversy involving Rishi Sunak and wife Akshata Murthy

Rishi Sunak and his wife also came under fire recently over the latter’s stake in Infosys, forcing the company to shut operations in Russia amid the Ukraine crisis

The story so far: It was reported in British newspapers on Thursday, April 7, that Akshata Murthy, the wife of Indian-origin United Kingdom Finance Minister Rishi Sunak and daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayan Murthy, claims a non-domiciled tax status in the UK. Under British law, this essentially means that one does not have to pay taxes on dividend benefits received from overseas companies.

Rishi Sunak is the current Chancellor of the Exchequer or Finance Minister of the UK, the second most important government position in the country. Major political observers in the UK have pegged him as the next candidate for the Prime Minister’s position after the country's current leader Boris Johnson.

He was appointed to the position in February 2020 by Mr. Johnson, at a time when the pandemic-hit UK was facing its most difficult economic challenge since the 2008 recession and even the Second World War. It was simultaneously bracing for post-Brexit trading arrangements with the European Union to kick in.

Mr. Sunak’s father is an Indian-born general physician with the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), and his mother runs an independent pharmacy. He got elected as an MP from Richmond (Yorks) in 2015. He got his degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford, and pursued an MBA from Stanford University.

He served at the Parliament Under Secretary level during former British PM Theresa May’s second term. He regularly supported the Brexit move and Mr. Johnson’s prime ministerial campaign. In 2019, after Mr. Johnson took charge, the MP was given the high-profile role of Chief Secretary to the Treasury.

In his term as the Finance Minister, the social-media-savvy politician, known for creating his own “brand”, has presented two national budgets and other interim financial statements.

While studying at Stanford, Mr. Sunak met Akshata Murthy, the daughter of N.R. Narayana Murthy, the co-founder of Bengaluru-headquartered IT services giant Infosys. Ms. Murthy has been residing in the UK since 2015. She worked at Deloitte and Unilever before going for the Stanford MBA. She now co-owns a London-based startup investment company called Catamaran Ventures UK with her husband.