Akshata Murty, daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murty and wife of UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, suffered a loss of around £49 million ($61 million) after Infosys shares plunged 9.4% on Monday, the biggest drop since March 2020. The drop also impacted other IT stocks, with the Nifty IT index plunging 7.6%. Despite this loss, Murty’s 0.95% stake in Infosys still holds a value of over $450 million.
Sunak has often been criticized for Murty’s ‘non-domicile’ status in the UK, with opposition parties calling him out for her failure to register her Infosys dividend earnings for tax purposes. Although the spokesperson of Rishi Sunak declined to comment on the matter, Murty’s wealth has been an ongoing topic in her husband’s political career.
In 2022, she received Rs 126.61 crore ($154 million) in dividend income from her Infosys shares, and last year, the couple faced controversy after it was revealed that Murty had not been paying taxes on her overseas profits. However, her spokesperson clarified that as an Indian citizen, she cannot hold dual citizenship and has been paying taxes on all her UK income.
In a separate development on Monday, UK Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg, initiated an inquiry against Rishi Sunak to investigate whether he had failed to declare a relevant interest related to his wife’s minority stake in a childcare company. Sunak’s office has stated that the interest had been ‘transparently declared’ and that he would cooperate with the inquiry.
Last month, Sunak disclosed his personal finances, revealing that he had paid over £1 million in UK taxes over the past three years, and his share and capital gains earnings were higher than his political salary. Sunak and Murty are the wealthiest couple to have ever lived at 10 Downing Street. Murty’s nearly 0.9% stake in Infosys Ltd. is valued at nearly $600 million based on Monday’s share price.
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