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As wealth inequality grows, is it time for an Indian inheritance tax?

Country had had 20 billionaires at the last count: more than some other major economies

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Sachin P Mampatta Mumbai

Billionaire Bill Gates, in a 2019 interview, supported bringing back a regulation in the US to require the super-rich to pay a 55 per cent tax when they inherit their family fortune.

Proponents of an inheritance or estate tax say it reduces inequality and creates a meritocratic society by chipping away at the enormous advantages the children of the wealthiest families enjoy by an accident of birth. Many large economies levy such a tax on their richest citizens; India does not.

Large inheritances are taxed at 40 per cent in the US and the UK. Germany is at