There is extreme lack of transparency for data, especially income tax data, in India - Piketty
NOTED economist and famous author of Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty was in New Delhi yesterday addressing an intellectual gathering at JNU. Piketty apologized for the fact that India does not have a bigger part in his book and that was because of lack of adequate historical data.
Legal Corner Icon — the image was hosted by the publisher and was not captured.The Piketty quotes:
- There is extreme lack of transparency for data, especially income tax data, in India.
- It is very difficult to get data from authorities and there has been a decline in publication of income tax data.
- I don't understand why there is no pressure from the media and universities on the government to make such data public.
- Access to income tax data is critical in measuring inequality and understanding the distribution of wealth. India used to publish the All India Income Tax Statistics until 2000, when it was discontinued.
- Every time, I ask about when access to data could become possible, I am told this will change in a week or two, or in a month. But it never happens.
- India has one of the worst inequalities in income and wealth globally.
- the richest 1 per cent in India own around 53 per cent of country's wealth.
- India needs more transparency about income and wealth.
- May be in long run, the possible evolution on reservations should be on moving towards quotas based on "parental income and wealth, rather than caste