On Sam Pitroda's 'inheritance tax' remark, Nirmala Sitharaman's dig at Congress

"The inheritance tax directly hits the middle class. It directly hits the aspirational class. They work hard, sweat and toil of theirs are saved in small savings here and there, or they buy a house, a dream house, and keep some fixed deposits. All this is going to be exposed to the so-called property tax…After all, Congress's reputation in terms of property tax goes back," Nirmala Sitharaman told news agency ANI.

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Recalling the compulsory deposit scheme from 1968, Nirmala Sitharaman said, "Something was taken away. There was no justification given at that time... If such wealth creators are going to be punished purely because they have some money kept behind, India's progress in the last 10 years would just go for a zero…The current generation would not even remember or know anything about it."

"There was India, where under the Congress rule, we paid 90% of all that was earned by us as tax. That's the socialist model which the Congress party is comfortable with," the finance minister added.

Nirmala Sitharaman's comments come days after a video of Indian Overseas Congress chairman Sam Pitroda went viral on social media in which he talked about inheritance tax in America. The video triggered a massive outrage, especially with the BJP leaders, who attacked the grand old party.

In the video, Sam Pitroda was heard saying, "In America, there is an inheritance tax. So, if, let's say, one has $100 million worth of wealth, and when he dies, he can only transfer probably 45 per cent to his children, the government grabs 55 per cent. That's an interesting law. It says you in your generation, made wealth and 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 and the public gets nothing... So, these are the kinds of issues people will have to debate and discuss."

He added, "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 the super-rich only."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also hit out at Pitroda saying that the "dangerous intentions of the Congress Party are now being exposed".

However, the Congress has distanced itself from the remarks and said that inheritance tax laws do not reflect the position of the party.