The Congress on Saturday took a jibe at the BJP-led government at the Centre over Indians renouncing their citizenship and said it was due to “climate of fear and intimidation” under the ruling dispensation.
Congress general secretary in-charge of Communication Jairam Ramesh, in a post on X wrote, “By the government’s own data, revealed in the Rajya Sabha, 2.16 lakh Indians gave up their citizenship in 2023, almost double the 123,000 who did so in 2011.”
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He claimed many of these Indians who renounced their citizenship are highly skilled and educated, and their leaving the country at a time of a domestic skilled labour supply shortage will extract a “serious toll” on our economy.
Stating that many are also financially well-off, Ramesh said, “Earlier this year, a leading global investment migration advisory firm had revealed that over 17,000 millionaires (individuals with total assets greater than $1 million) had left India in the last three years.”
“This exodus of high-skilled and high net worth Indians could very well have been the result of opaque tax policies and an arbitrary tax administration, quite apart from the overall climate of fear and intimidation surrounding corporate India in the past decade,” he said.
The MP also claimed that increasingly business personalities are relocating to Singapore, UAE, UK and other places.
“If nothing else, this is a economic travesty that will seriously shrink our tax revenue base over the next few years,” he said.
The parliamentarian along with his post also shared a written statement made by Union Minister of State for External Affairs Kirti Vardhan Singh on 1st August in Rajya Sabha in repose to questions on Indian citizens who denounced their citizenship in last five years.
According to data provided by the Minister, 2,16,219 Indians denounced their citizenship in 2023, while the number stood at 2,25,620 in 2022.
Singh said the reasons for renouncing/taking citizenship were personal.
