Since 2020, almost five billion people worldwide have become poorer, according to Oxfam.
Davos:
The world's five richest men have more than doubled their fortunes since 2020, the charity Oxfam said on Monday, as it called on countries to resist the influence of the ultra-rich on tax policy.
A report from the charity, published this week as the global elite hobby at the World Economic Forum in Davos, says their wealth rose from $405 billion in 2020 to $869 billion last year.
Yet almost five billion people worldwide have become poorer since 2020, says Oxfam.
Billionaires are $3.3 billion richer today than in 2020, despite many crises that have devastated the global economy since the start of this decade, including the Covid pandemic.
Oxfam's annual report on global inequality is traditionally published just before the opening of the forum on Monday in the Swiss Alpine resort.
The charity raised concerns about rising global inequality, with the richest individuals and companies amassing more wealth thanks to rising share prices, but also significantly more power.
“Corporate power is used to promote inequality: by squeezing workers and enriching wealthy shareholders, avoiding taxes and privatizing the state,” Oxfam said.
It also accuses companies of “promoting inequality by waging a sustained and highly effective war on taxes,” with far-reaching consequences.
Oxfam said states have handed power to monopolies, allowing companies to influence the wages people get, food prices and what medicines individuals have access to.
“Around the world, members of the private sector have relentlessly pushed for lower tariffs, more loopholes, less transparency and other measures aimed at allowing companies to contribute as little as possible to public coffers,” Oxfam added to it.
The charity said that intensive tax policy lobbying has allowed companies to pay lower business taxes, depriving governments of money that could be used to financially support the poorest in society.
Corporate taxes have fallen significantly in OECD countries, from 48 percent in 1980 to 23.1 percent in 2022, according to Oxfam.
To address this imbalance, Oxfam called for a wealth tax on the world's millionaires and billionaires, which it said could raise $1.8 trillion annually.
The charity also called for limiting CEO pay and breaking up private monopolies.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
