The United Nations said in a new report that cash holdings being enjoyed by the more than a thousand billionaires could tremendously uplift the plight of nations still struggling with poverty.

On its yearly World Economic and Social Survey, the UN said that apart from imposing taxes on carbon emission, currency exchanges and business dealings, requiring the estimated 1226 global billionaires to pay one percent tax would at least accumulate $US46 billon in a year.

That collective amount, the report said, could prove negligible for the hundreds of billionaires, who the UN said, hold an average wealth of at least $3 billion, but for the billions extremely limited by too scarce resources, it could go a long way.

According to study lead author Rob Vos, latest data showed that global billionaires account for some $US4.6 trillion, distributed in the United States, Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Africa and the Americas.

The report argued that the minimal tax that would be slapped on the world's mega rich would not hurt a bit, even for the ones considered as the 'poorest' among the elite club.

Meaning the likes of Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer can burn a couple of thousand dollars each day but it would take them 10,000 years at the maximum to use up all their riches.

For these personalities to go bankrupt by leading the fight to address global poverty is a very remote possibility, the UN report said, as their holdings were mostly attached to a stable growth pace.

In fact, "if that rate of growth returned with no wealth tax, the average billionaire's wealth would double in less than 18 years," Mr Vos was reported by Agence France Presse (AFP) as saying on Friday.

He added that the suggestions were being proposed because assistance extended to needy countries have been shrinking consistently, falling short again to $US167 billion in 2011.

Instead of depending too much on unilateral donations, the UN report said that its proposed measures would at least lighten the pressure from donor countries while at the same time prod for economic growth.

The proposed taxes, Mr Vos said, "stimulate the green economy and mitigate financial market instability," which in the long-run benefits everyone.

However, the report also conceded that while the other form of taxes it stipulated may encounter some form of opposition, their realisation was not entirely an impossible proposition unlike the idea of taxing the world's super-rich.

At best, Mr Vos admitted that asking high-profile personalities such as Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to voluntarily submit to the proposed taxation scheme is for now "an intriguing possibility."

"It has not been regarded as a means of raising revenues for international cooperation," Mr Vos told AFP.