Congress leader Jairam Ramesh has alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wanted to bring back the Inheritance Tax, which was abolished by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985. Ramesh shared “facts” to establish that it was PM Modi’s government which wanted to re-introduce the Inheritance Tax regime or “estate duty”. He said that then Minister of State for Finance, Jayant Sinha, publicly stated that he wanted to introduce Inheritance Tax in 2014. In 2017, reports emerged that the Modi government was considering re-introducing the tax. In 2018, Modi praised Inheritance Taxes for “universities in the West”. Ramesh also shared screenshots of news articles published with Jayant Sinha and other ministers’ comments favouring the idea of inheritance tax.
BJP leader Amit Malviya shared a report and claimed that it was Chidambaram, who as Finance Minister, in 2012, proposed the idea of imposing Inheritance Tax. Malviya also shared a news report published in 2012. The report was headlined ‘Time for debate on inheritance tax: Chidambaram’.
In India, the concept of levying tax on inheritance does not exist as of now. The Inheritance or Estate Tax was abolished with effect from 1985.
Sam Pitroda, the president of the Indian Overseas Congress, recently talked about the inheritance tax law in the US and referred to the “redistribution of wealth” issue. He said that in America, there is an inheritance tax and that when a person dies, only 45% of their wealth can be transferred to their children, while 55% is taken by the government. Pitroda said that this law ensures that wealth is not concentrated in the hands of a few individuals.
However, Pitroda later clarified that he was not advocating for the introduction of inheritance tax in India. He said that his comments were taken out of context and that he was simply highlighting the issue of wealth inequality.
