In view of the meeting of the powerful in Davos, Oxfam calls for the richest to be taxed

Higher taxes on people with the richest fortunes have become an “urgent” need as the poorest suffer from accelerating inflation and the closed billionaire club grows due to rising prices and previously the pandemic of the new coronavirus, the coronavirus in a statement released today, on the occasion of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

“Billionaires are coming to Davos to celebrate the incredible rise in their fortunes,” said Gabriela Boucher, the NGO’s director general, according to the text, which noted that inequality, already frightening before the pandemic, had passed. on another level “.

As Ms. Boucher explains, “the new coronavirus pandemic and now the huge increases in food and energy prices have been, to put it simply, a golden vein for them,” referring to the billionaires.

The pandemic, which mainly boosted tech stock prices, created a new billionaire every thirty hours, bringing the wealthy to 537 today, Oxfam quoted Forbes magazine as saying. people with the largest assets and in World Bank data.

This wealth reflects the fact that 263 million people will be plunged into extreme poverty this year, the NGO said, due to rising inflation in most parts of the world, driven by food and energy prices. That number means that one million people will be plunged into extreme poverty every hour that passes, he explains.

“We are moving back decades of extreme poverty, with millions of people facing rising costs that they can not afford simply to survive,” said Ms Bucher.

To alleviate the situation, Oxfam is calling for a series of fiscal measures, including an emergency solidarity tax on new big fortunes, those of people who became billionaires during the pandemic, to use the proceeds to support the poor. to have a “fair and lasting” recovery after the pandemic.

He also proposes to tax at a rate of up to 90% the inconceivable profits announced in recent years by multinationals in the agri-food sector, the pharmaceutical sector, the oil sector, among others.

Then, in Oxfam’s view, the imposition of more permanent taxes on large estates should be considered.

The imposition of a large property tax of just 2% on millionaires and 5% on billionaires would contribute 2.52 trillion. dollars on an annual basis, estimates the non-governmental organization. That amount would lift 2.3 billion people out of extreme poverty around the world, distribute vaccines around the world, and provide universal insurance and health care to middle- and low-income citizens, Oxfam said.

SOURCE: AMPE