Fact Check: Assessing Claims of Congress Proposing an Inheritance Tax Upon Election Victory

The BJP and the Congress are in a tougher war of words as they prepare for the second round of Lok Sabha Polls. Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Congress at a gathering in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday, saying that the Congress might put in place an inheritance tax if they win the election. “Congress is saying that it will implement Inheritance Tax,” Prime Minister Modi said. “They will introduce tax on inheritance received from your mother and father.” “Congress Ki Loot, ZIndagi K Saath Bhi, Zindagi K Baad Bhi” was his last words.

Archived version of the post can be seen here.

People are talking a lot about what the Prime Minister said on social media sites. Several X users shared the video byte of PM criticizing what they said was Congress’ plan to put in place the Inheritance Tax.

What Is Inheritance Tax?

Inheritance Tax is a tax that is put on the assets or income of a person who has died so that it can be given to their heirs. Several countries, like Japan, the US, and France, charge these kinds of taxes.

Fact Check/Verification

Using Google’s search terms for “Congress” and “Inheritance Tax,” we found several news stories that said Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the Indian Overseas Congress, caused a political row with his comments about the US inheritance tax in an interview with the news service ANI.

How it started

He then says, “In America, there is an inheritance tax.” So let’s say someone is rich and has $100 million. When he dies, he can only give his children about 45% of that money. The government takes 55%. That law is really cool. In your age, people got rich, and now you’re leaving. It says you should leave some of your wealth to the public, but not all of it. I think that’s fair. You don’t have that in India. If someone worth 10 billion dies, the public doesn’t get anything; his children do. The law says that the people should get half of it and you should get half of it.

“These are the kinds of problems that people will have to argue about and talk about.” “I don’t know what the end result will be, but when we talk about redistributing wealth, we’re talking about new policies and programs that help everyone, not just the very rich,” he says.

It’s clear from the video byte that Pitroda was talking about a tax in the US, like the Monopoly Act, and not suggesting that India should have a tax like that.

Mentioned US inheritance tax only as an example: Pitroda Issues Clarification

The fight over the inheritance tax got worse, and Sam Pitroda said that his comments were twisted by the “godi media.” Pitroda wrote on X, “It is unfortunate that what I said as a private person about the US inheritance tax is being twisted by the Godi media to take attention away from the lies PM is spreading about the Congress manifesto.” The things the PM said about the Mangal Sutra and gold snatching are not true. (sic)”

During his normal TV talk, he said, “I only used the US inheritance tax as an example.” Can I not talk about facts? I told them that these are the kinds of problems they will have to argue about. There is no link between this and the policies of any party, not even those in Congress. (sic)”

“Who said 55% would be taken away?” Who said India should do something like this? Why are the BJP and the media so scared? (sic)”

No Mention Of Inheritance Tax In Congress’ Nyay Patra

We quickly read through the part of the Congress’s election platform called “Taxation and Tax Reforms.” It talks about a lot of things, like making a Direct Taxes Code, getting rid of the Angel tax, lowering the tax burden on small businesses owned by individuals and partnership companies, and redesigning the GST council. But we didn’t find any word of an inheritance tax or any other kind of tax on family wealth.

The word “inheritance” is used just one time in the text. In the section about empowering women, the party says, “Women and men should have equal rights when it comes to marriage, succession, inheritance, adoption, guardianship, and other issues.” We’ll look over all the rules and make sure that men and women can have good relationships.

Party, Senior Leaders X Accounts Do Not Mention Inheritance Tax

We quickly looked through the Indian National Congress’s official X account and didn’t find any text about putting in place the Inheritance Tax if they win the election. Also, an advanced X search did not turn up any posts that had the word “Inheritance Tax” in them.

Priyanka Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Mallikarjun Kharge, the president of the Congress Party, did not name a “Inheritance Tax” in their X accounts either.

Also, there have been no new reports that a senior Congress member has suggested that India should have an inheritance tax.

Notably, P. Chidambaram, who was the leader of the Congress Party and the Union Minister at the time during UPA 2.0, is said to have pushed for an inheritance tax because the country has a low tax-to-GDP ratio. “We’re way too optimistic about our ability to get money, especially tax money.” He was reported as saying, “The tax-to-GDP ratio needs to be raised because it is hard to control non-plan spending. This can be done by taxing unnecessary spending and inheritances.”

However, the same never materialised.

The Estate Duty Act of 1953 was thrown out by the Rajiv Gandhi government.
The Estate Duty Act of 1953 in India put a tax on gifts to family and friends. But that was done away with in 1985 by the Congress government, which was led by Rajiv Gandhi. At that time, VP Singh was the country’s Finance Minister. He was said to have thought that the Act had failed to make society more balanced and close the wealth gap.

When BJP Leaders Mentioned Inheritance Tax

BJP leaders have also talked about the pros of the Inheritance Tax more than once. A story from 2014 said that BJP leader Jayant Sinha wanted to see some kind of inheritance tax on the money that rich people leave to their children and grandchildren after they die.

It is said that the late Arun Jaitley said in 2018 that hospitals, universities, and other organizations abroad have been getting huge donations because of inheritance tax. In India, things are not the same, though.

Several news stories in 2019 said that the Modi government might bring back the Inheritance Tax.

Congress Leaders Make It Clear: “No Plan To Introduce Inheritance Tax, Not In Manifesto”

Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge has made it clear that his party has no plans to introduce the Inheritance Tax. “There is a constitution, and we have no plans to change it.” Why are you telling us what he thinks? “All of these games are being played just to get votes,” Kharge told reporters in Kerala.

Congress MP Jairam Ramesh made the party’s stance clear by saying, “The Congress has no plans whatsoever to introduce an inheritance tax.” In fact, Estate Duty was done away with by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.

Shashi Tharoor said, “The Congress manifesto doesn’t say anything about stealing anyone’s gold or women’s mangalsutras.” Sam Pitroda is not on the group that makes the manifesto. It’s not on our list of things to do…That’s just his view. You can’t take someone’s personal opinion and say that’s what the Congress party wants.

Conclusion

You can’t prove that Congress said it was going to put in place the Inheritance Tax. In an interview, Congress leader Sam Pitroda talked about the tax. He has since said that he was just using it as an example of an American tax. The claim has also been shot down by party President Kharge and other leaders. The Congress’s platform doesn’t talk about this kind of tax at all.