Congress slams citizenship renunciation as 'economic travesty'

New Delhi, NT Bureau: Citing government data of 2.16 lakh Indians renouncing their citizenship in 2023, the Congress on Saturday said the exodus of highskilled and high net worth Indians is an "economic travesty" that will shrink the country's tax revenue base over the next few years.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh said business personalities are increasingly relocating to places such as Singapore, UAE, the UK and other places renouncing their Indian citizenship.

Ramesh, the Congress general secretary in-charge communications, said the number was almost double than what it was in 2011, at 123,000.

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," he said.

"Many are also financially well-off - earlier this year, a leading global investment migration advisory firm had revealed that over 17,000 millionaires had left India in the last three years," Ramesh said.

"If nothing else, this is an economic travesty that will seriously shrink our tax revenue base over the next few years," he said.