The group calling itself the Patriotic Millionaires said that the ultra-wealthy were not currently being forced to pay their share of the global economic recovery from the pandemic.

"As millionaires, we know that the current tax system is not fair. Most of us can say that, while the world has gone through an immense amount of suffering in the last two years, we have actually seen our wealth rise during the pandemic — yet few if any of us can honestly say that we pay our fair share in taxes," the signatories said in an open letter, published on the occasion of the World Economic Forum's "virtual Davos", which began on Monday.

Reuters reported last year on the staggering rise in billionaires' wealth in 2020, as the world went into lockdown and the global economy faced its worst recession since World War II, prompting the millionaires' group to call for higher taxes.

While that spurred more than 130 countries to agree to a deal to ensure big companies pay a global minimum tax rate of 15 percent, aimed at making it harder for them to avoid taxation, the millionaires said the wealthy still needed to contribute more.

Over the course of the two years of the pandemic, the fortunes of the world's 10 richest individuals have risen to US$1.5 trillion, or by $15,000 a second, a study by Oxfam this week showed.

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