Inequality is everywhere

Of late, inequality and related matters have occupied space in political discourse. Inequality is painted as a disease in India to be treated urgently.

However, it is more pronounced globally. in 2017, the bottom half of the global population owned less than 1 per cent of total wealth; while the richest 1 per cent alone held about 50 per cent of all wealth. Technology has played a part.

Millions of makers/sellers of photo film, processing labs, album sellers, were displaced by a handful of mobile makers with cameras and sharing apps.

Such disparity in sports, education, business, corporate world, etc. is a global phenomenon. This happens due to tech disruption which is unpredictable and unstoppable, uneven.

V Vijaykumar

Pune

Say no to Inheritance Tax

The news report ‘Prime Minister tears into Congress over alleged plans to tax inherited wealth’ (April 25) highlights vicious debate spurred on Sam Pitroda’s suggestion on US model of inheritance tax at 45-50 per cent.

Sam Pitroda was a prominent policy maker on various projects of the Congress government for three decades from 1980 to 2009 but unfortunately he misunderstood the social fabric, Inheritance laws, business ecosystem and direct tax structure of the country.

Estate duty was abolished in 1985 by the Congress government and Wealth Tax was abolished in 2016 by the NDA government.

Therefore, Congress should have nipped the issue of inheritance tax in the bud.

There are provisions of inheritance in the Hindu Undivided families (HUF) in the Income Tax Act and Trust laws. In business families the inherited assets continue in the running business and industrial entities of the inheritors.

By way of charging the inheritance tax, the social fabric and economy as a whole will badly suffer.

Sam Pitroda’s suggestion is unthoughtful, untimely and regressive. At the end of the second phase of polling, Congress must disown the idea of inheritance tax.

Vinod Johri

New Delhi

SFBs’ contribution

Apropos ‘Small Finance Banks’ universal’ conundrum’ (April 25), the writers bring to the fore that Small Finance Banks are serving the underserved markets.

They have fostered financial inclusion with deep rural coverage with augmented access to micro finance and well balanced geographical coverage.

But their risk management policies need to be tightened tuning them to prudential lending with good recovery process.

Above all consolidating them with other universal banks may ensure risk reduction.

But it will lose its tag as a saviour of the unbanked masses who need vibrant financial inclusion.

NR Nagarajan

Sivakasi

IT’s woes

This refers to the edit ‘IT’s time for a reset’, India is nothing more than a back office for the IT industry in the US. The current downturn in the IT sector is due to the downturn of this sector in the US.

This is reflected in not just the audited results of the top IT firms in India but also the reduction in the number of employees working for them.

With AI expected to be operational in the next couple of years, a further disruption is in store.

Anthony Henriques

Mumbai

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