Sam Pitroda says Congress’s ‘redistribution of wealth in interest of people’; advocates inheritance tax in India

Sam Pitroda advocates inheritance tax law in India, emphasizing wealth redistribution and criticizing PM Modi's comments on Congress manifesto.

Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda has backed the party's stand on redistribution of wealth and advocated an inheritance tax law in the country.

Emphasing the need for policy towards wealth redistribution, Mr. Pitroda elaborated on the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in the U.S. "In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has $100 million worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer probably 45% to his children, 55% 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," Mr. Pitroda said.

"In India, you don't 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.

Mr. Pitroda also said that the subject of wealth distribution is strictly a 'policy issue' and he feels concerned about Prime Minister Narendra Modi after his remarks on Congress manifesto.

"This is a policy issue. 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.

"It's naive to think like that. The PM of a country thinks like that... I have some concerns about his brain," he said when asked to comment on the Prime Minister's criticism of the Congress manifesto.

Prime Minister Modi and the BJP have criticised the Congress manifesto saying the poll document smacks of appeasement and that if it came to power, it would redistribute people's wealth and also give reservations to Muslims from the quota for SC, ST, and OCB communities.