“Redistribution of wealth in interest of people, not super rich,” says Sam Pitroda; advocates inheritance tax-like law in India

Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress Sam Pitroda has backed the party's stand on redistribution of wealth and advocated an inheritance tax law in the country. Emphasing the need for policy towards wealth redistribution, Pitroda elaborated on the concept of inheritance tax prevailing in America. “In America, there is an inheritance tax. If one has $100 million worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer probably 45 per cent to his children, 55 per cent is grabbed by the government. That’s an interesting law. It says you in your generation, made wealth and you are leaving now, you must leave your wealth for the public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair,” Pitroda said. “In India, you don’t have that. If somebody is worth 10 billion and he dies, his children get 10 billion and the public gets nothing...So these are the kinds of issues people will have to debate and discuss. When we talk about redistributing wealth, we are talking about new policies and new prog