Akhilesh Yadav Promises 2% Tax on Upper Caste Elites With an Aim to Bridge Economic Disparity

Lucknow: The Samajwadi Party has announced to levy tax of 2% on the upper caste elites whose total wealth of household is more than Rs 2.5 crore, after coming to power.

Hitting out at the upper caste groups, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav said the 10% of the total population owns more than 60% of the country’s wealth. He said this after he released the party’s vision document at SP headquarters here, titled Mahaparivartan Through Social Justice’, ahead of Lok Sabha elections.

The SP’s vision document comes weeks after the government announcement of 10% reservation for economically weaker sections of the upper caste. The SP’s document claims to mobilise minority groups like Dalits, OBCs and Muslims.

The first page of the vision document reads ‘Enough is Enough’, under which the party has said the privileged dismiss them as casteist. “The elite and the rich dismiss us as power hungry. These are all lies designed to maintain and perpetuate oppressive power structures to benefit the few," the document reads.

“Here are the facts: India is perhaps the most unequal country in the world. The rich have become super rich – in fact, the richest 10% of the population (uniformly upper caste) owns more than 60% of India’s wealth. And the poor have struggled with income growth well below inflation. Half the population has just 8% of India’s wealth, and are getting poorer every day," reads the Samajwadi Party vision document on the first page.

“We propose financing this increase in social transfers by imposing an additional 2% tax on total wealth of households owning more than Rs 2.5 crores (about 0.1% of the Indian households). This works out to 1.1% of the GDP. We believe it is also time to add a top income tax bracket for the ultra-rich who hide their income using complex structures. Doing so would unlock up to an additional 1% of the GDP," the party said in its manifesto.

The vision document talks about growth, education, employment, infrastructure, golden revolution, national security, internal security, clean energy and equal rights for women. The party has not used the word ‘minority’ in the document.

“I am with them, my entire party is with them," said Akhilesh Yadav on being asked why the word ‘minority’ was not used.

Also, the Samajwadi Party in its vision document has proposed to raise an Ahir Armoured Regiment and a Gujarat Infantry Regiment. The vision document also proposes ban on political messaging that uses Armed Forces in any form.