Here’s What Rahul Gandhi’s Minimum Income Guarantee Scheme Will Look Like
Rahul Gandhi’s slogan for 2019 is ‘No Indian Left Behind’. Here’s how his income guarantee scheme will work.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi promised a minimum income guarantee scheme for the poor if voted to power in the next general election. But what will it look like?
Arvind Subramanian, India’s former chief economic adviser, had floated the idea of a universal basic income for the poor in the Economic Survey for 2016-17. The Congress’ promise is not exactly the same.
This would be a progressive income scheme, said Praveen Chakravarty, former investment banker and head of the party’s data analytics department. Unlike Subramanian’s idea, the Congress scheme would determine a certain threshold marked as a minimum income level, according to Chakravarty who has worked on the party’s scheme, told BloombergQuint in an interview.
Families falling below this threshold would be compensated an amount up to a pre-determined level through direct transfer, he said, adding that the scheme would be funded through a combination of increase in revenue and rationalising expenditure.
The Congress is betting that more cash in the hands of the poor will also boost consumption.
Income in the hands of the poor automatically also leads to a consumption boost of the economy. All the details of funding will be in the Congress manifesto.Praveen Chakravarty, Chairperson, Data Analytics Department, Indian National Congress