Brazil has fired up the G20 with a sharp focus on wealth inequality within a few months of taking the presidency of the influential grouping from India in December last year. Led by Brazil and endorsed by several other countries, notably France, Germany, South Africa and Spain as well as by the IMF – the agenda has gained momentum and become a rallying cry that India will find hard to ignore. Just last week (July 10), nineteen former Heads of State and Government wrote a letter to G20 leaders calling upon them to back the Brazilian G20 presidency’s proposal for a new global deal to tax the world’s ultra-rich individuals.

“We, as former leaders, recognise a rare strategic opportunity when we see one. Taxes are the foundation of a civilised, industrious, and prosperous society. Yet our time is one in which the ultra-rich across the world pay a lower tax rate than teachers and cleaners. Billionaires, globally, are paying a tax rate equivalent to less than 0.5% of their wealth. Trillions of dollars that could have been productively invested in communities, education, health, and infrastructure have instead been unproductively accumulated by the ultra-wealthy,” wrote the former heads of Costa Rica, Chile, the Netherlands, Latvia, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, Spain, Lithuania, Austria, Korea, Poland, Belgium, Sweden, Greece, Spain, Slovenia and France.

This is a speedy and sharp uptake for a plan that began right here in New Delhi, where delegates heard the Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva say in Sep.2023: “If we want to make a difference, we have to put the reduction of inequalities at the centre of the international agenda.” With relentless attention to........

© Greater Kashmir