Former prime minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said the Congress’ ‘Nyay’ minimum income guarantee scheme will not generate any new taxes and help restart the “economic engine” which has come to a “stop”. The senior Congress leader’s remark comes as the BJP has claimed that the scheme will “ruin” fiscal discipline and the Congress will impose new taxes on middle class to finance it.
The Congress has promised to lend an annual income support of Rs 72,000 to poor families under the scheme, if voted to power.
The former prime minister, also a noted economist, said his party will adhere to fiscal discipline.
He said the Nyay scheme will cost between 1.2-1.5 percent of GDP at its peak. However, since India is nearly a $3 trillion economy, the fiscal capacity will absorb this expenditure. There will be no need for any new taxes on the middle class to finance Nyay. The economic stimulus it will provide will further help in fiscal discipline.
The scheme has been conceptualised after much thought and consultations with experts, he added.
Singh said as the Congress government in 1991 brought in a new shift for India’s development with the de-licensing regime and a rights based approach to governance in 2004-14, he trusts that a Congress-led dispensation in 2019 will implement ‘Nyay’ scheme successfully and usher in a new model for social justice and prudent economics.
He sincerely believes that Nyay has the potential to catapult India into the club of ‘poverty free’ nations in the world and I hopes to be able to live to see the nation achieve this historic milestone.
In remarks aimed at the Narendra Modi government, he said ‘Nyay’ will help restart India’s economic engine that has come to a pause.
Singh said that at a time when private investment and industrial production are low, Nyay can help bring our economy back to life and create new factories and jobs.
The senior Congress leader said nearly 70 percent of Indians were poor when India attained Independence from the British and the figure has come down to 20 percent with sound policies adopted by successive governments over the last seven decades.
It is time now to renew our pledge to wipe out the last remains of poverty, he added.
