- Huffington Post World report claims Sonia Gandhi has $2b wealth
Huffington Post World has published a report claiming that Indian Congress President Sonia Gandhi is the 12th richest political leader in the world; being richer than Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian President Vladimir Putin tops the list with riches worth $40 billion, followed by Thailand King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and Brunei Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah.
The Indian Congress leader is followed by the Prince of Monaco Albert II, who is worth $1 billion. The Sultan of Oman Qaboos bin Said and Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo are next on the list.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is 16th on the list with riches worth $550 million, while the Queen of England Elizabeth II is ranked 18th on the list with riches worth between $400 million and $500 million.
Notably, Gandhi, while filing her nomination for the Lok Sabha elections in 2009, had declared that she owned neither a car nor a house in India. However, she had mentioned owning an ancestral home in Italy valued at Rs 1.8 million.
Sonia Gandhi’s assets, according to the affidavit, totalled Rs 1.38 crore, nearly Rs 1 crore less than what her son Rahul Gandhi reportedly had.
Sonia Gandhi’s affidavit says that she had Rs 75,000 in cash and Rs 2.86 million in bank deposits. In addition, she had mutual funds worth about Rs 2 million and Rs 1.2 million in Reserve Bank of India bonds.
A sum of Rs 199,000 was deposited in post offices and Rs 2.48 million with the Public Provident Fund.
Sonia Gandhi’s jewellery, weighing about 2.5 kg, was valued at Rs 1.1 million while 88 kgs of silver possessed by her was stated to be worth about Rs 1.8 million.
She owns two plots of agricultural land totalling up to about 15 bighas and valued at Rs 219,000. Their location is not mentioned in the affidavit.
Sonia Gandhi paid Rs 558,000 in income tax for the assessment year 2008-09 and Rs 32,512 in wealth tax.
However, the report in Huffington Post World claims Sonia Gandhi has $2 billion wealth. The report does not mention how it arrived at this conclusion.
Based on available data, the report has come up with a list of the 20 richest world leaders currently in power. The list includes kings, presidents, sultans and queens. The Middle East is the richest region as seven in the list of 20 come from there, according to the report.
For comparison, each country’s GDP per capita is juxtaposed with a leader’s personal net worth, just to show how different life is for the haves and have-nots, says the website.
