Tax evasion rampant

Oxfam said as much as 30 per cent of all African financial wealth was thought to be held offshore. The estimated loss of $14 billion (Dh51.41 billion) in tax revenues would be enough to pay for health care for mothers and children that could save 4 million children’s lives a year and employ enough teachers to get every African child into school.

The charity said it intended to challenge the executives of multinational corporations in Davos on their tax policies. It said nine out of 10 WEF corporate partners had a presence in at least one tax haven and it was estimated that tax dodging by multinational corporations costs developing countries at least $100 billion every year. Corporate investment in tax havens almost quadrupled between 2000 and 2014.

The Equality Trust, which campaigns against inequality in the UK, said Britain’s 100 richest families had increased their wealth by at least £57 bilion (Dh298.34 billion) since 2010, a period in which average incomes declined.

Duncan Exley, the trust’s director, said: “Inequality, both globally but also in the UK, is now at staggering levels. We know that such a vast gap between the richest and the rest of us is bad for our economy and society. We now need our politicians to wake up and address this dangerous concentration of wealth and power in the hands of so few.”