Did Congress Manifesto mention about Inheritance Tax? Fact Check

Posted by: Gayathri S. April 25, 2024

As the Lok Sabha poll campaign heats up, the war of words between the two national parties — the BJP and the Congress — has taken a strange turn to the wealth redistribution promised by the latter. The trigger came when “Inheritance Tax in the US” was referred to by the Chairman of Indian Overseas Congress, Sam Pitroda, during an interview with the news agency ANI.

Usually, Inheritance Tax is imposed on the assets/wealth of a deceased person that is to be distributed among their heirs. Several countries such as Japan, the US, and France levy such tax.

However, this has taken the social media by storm when supporters and opposers took exception to such tax in India. Several memes, news reports, TV debates started airing the issue making it to headlines on every news channel.

When Digiteye India received a query on its WhatsApp tipline, we found some claims on the issue here and here.

FACT CHECK

First, we checked the Congress Manifesto but found no mention of Inheritance Tax or any such move in the document called Congress’ Nyay Patra. On the section under ‘Taxation and Tax Reforms’, the Congress’ manifesto mentioned the enactment of a Direct Taxes Code, elimination of Angel tax, reducing the tax burden on MSMEs owned by individuals and partnership firms, and redesigning of the GST council among others.

The word “inheritance” is referred under women’s empowerment section, when the party promised, “In matters of marriage, succession, inheritance,adoption, guardianship, etc., women and men should have equal rights. We will review all the laws and ensure quality between men and women.” hence, this has nothing to do with the inheritance tax.

Next, we checked the ANI interview of Sam Pitroda where he was seen referring to the Inheritance Tax in the US. The full video of the interview is available on ANI Youtube channel here, titled “Is Congress advocating for Inheritance tax in India ? Sam Pitroda drops big hint in this interview”. The same was shared by ANI on its X handle on April 24, 2024 here:

In this interview, Sam Pitroda was asked about the promise made by Congress in the manifesto about a survey of wealth in the country, and to “undertake an exercise to redistribute the same… among the people…”.

In his reply, Sam Pitroda says: “Let me tell you in America, there is a inheritance tax. So if let’s say one has $100 million worth of wealth and when he dies he can only transfer probably 45% to his children. 55% is grabbed by the government. Now That’s an interesting law. It says you in your generation, made wealth, you are leaving now, you must leave your wealth for the public, not all of it, half of it, which to me sounds fair. In India, you don’t have that. If somebody is worth 10 billion and he dies, his children get 10 billion, public gets nothing. The law says you get half of it, public gets half of it. (sic)”

“So these are the kind of issues people will have to debate, discuss. I don’t know what the conclusion would be at the end of the day but when we talk about redistributing wealth, we are talking about new policies and new programs that are in the interest of the people and not in the interest of super-rich only (sic),” he says.

As a resident of the US, Sam Pitroda was giving an example of a tax in his country but clearly not proposing the same to be implemented in India.

When the interview drew criticism from the BJP, Sam Pitroda issued a clarification stating, “I mentioned US inheritance tax in the US only as an example in my normal conversation on TV. Can I not mention facts? I said these are the kind of issues people will have to discuss and debate. This has nothing to do with policy of any party including congress. (sic)” He further added, “Who said 55% will be taken away ? Who said some thing like this should be done in India ? Why is BJP and media in panic ? (sic)””

On its part, the Congress Party vivdly distanced itself from the issue.

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has clarified that the party has no such plan. “There is a constitution, we don’t have any intention. Why are you putting his ideas in our mouths? Just for votes, he is playing all these games…”

 

Congress Party’s Communications-in-Charge Jairam Ramesh reiterated the same and said, “The Congress has no plan whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax. In fact, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi abolished Estate Duty in 1985.”

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also said, “Nowhere does it (Congress manifesto) talk about taking anybody’s gold and snatching the mangalsutra of women… Sam Pitroda is not in the manifesto committee. This is not part of our agenda…It is his personal opinion. You can’t take anyone’s personal opinion and say that it is going to be Congress party’s intention.”

Hence, the claim is misleading and false.

Claim: Congress manifesto promises to implement Inheritance Tax if elected to power.
Conclusion: False. No mention of any plan to implement Inheritance Tax in Congress manifesto. The tax was mentioned by overseas Congress leader Sam Pitroda in an interview, and also clarified by him that he was giving an example of taxation in America. Congress Party has dismissed the claim as not the party’s stand.

Rating: Misrepresentation —

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