Taxing people’s inheritance cannot address inequality and has “never removed poverty”, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told The Times of India newspaper, alleviating fears that such a tax could be imposed if he returns to power after the elections.
Inheritance tax and wealth tax have become key campaign issues in the world’s largest election with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party and the main opposition Congress accusing each other of being in favour of such taxes.
Terming such taxes “dangerous problems disguised as solutions”, Modi, in an interview published on Monday, said that they have never been successful and have only distributed wealth “so that everyone is equally poor”.
“I do not think they are solutions by any stretch of the imagination … These policies sow discord and block every road to equity, they create hatred and destabilise the economic as well as social fabric of a nation,” he said.
Campaigning in India’s elections has heated up after the first phase of polling on April 19. Modi has accused Congress of favouring minority Muslims and aiming to dilute affirmative action while the opposition party has said Modi fears losing and was using divisive language to distract voters from real issues such as unemployment, rising prices and rural distress.
India has recorded a lower voter turnout in polling so far compared to elections in 2019, sparking concerns in the poll panel and political parties that rising temperatures and weddings in some parts of the country may be keeping voters at home in an election without a strong, central issue.
The third of the seven phases of voting is set for May 7.
(Reuters)
