India is home to 200 billionaires. Should it consider a ‘super tax’ for its ultra-rich?

When India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi was savouring moments last week at the wedding of the son of Asia’s richest businessman Mukesh Ambani, he was likely unaware of a brewing political storm: a demand for taxing the ultra-rich.

Modi’s chief political opponent, the Indian National Congress, has launched a bid to impose a special tax on the rising number of billionaires in India as the government prepares to unveil the first federal budget of its third term on July 23.

Meanwhile, the G20 summit is also set to take place later this month in Brazil, where discussion on a proposal to increase taxes on the super-rich is expected to be on the agenda.

“All over the world, there is a growing consensus that billionaires must pay their fair share of taxes,” Congress chief spokesman Jairam Ramesh wrote on July 12 on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

A 2 per cent tax on billionaires’ wealth was originally proposed by Brazil shortly after the country took over the rotational presidency of the G20 in December last year. Since then, it has been gaining momentum with countries such as France, Germany, Spain, Belgium and South Africa throwing their weight behind it.

On July 10, 19 former heads of state and prime ministers wrote an open letter to the G20 leaders urging them to adopt a global resolution to tax the ultra-rich.