We’ll get NYAY for the poor, promises P Chidambaram

Former Union Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the minimum income guarantee scheme (NYAY) was announced by party president Rahul Gandhi only after holding consultations with experts on its feasibility.

Addressing newspersons at the State party headquarters here, Chidambaram said the scheme would be implemented in phases. “We have consulted enough economists and experts in the subject. All of them broadly agree that the country has the capacity to implement the scheme,” he said.

Quoting former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan as saying that the implementation of the scheme was feasible, Chidambaram said, “Our calculation shows that the allocation for the scheme will not cross 2 per cent of the GDP. At any given point in time, it will not exceed 1.8 per cent of the GDP. The scheme must be designed carefully, tested in the field and rolled out. It will be rolled out in phases. We will cover 5 crore families in phases.”

The Harvard-educated economist also added that an expert committee will be constituted for the implementation of the scheme, assuring on behalf of the Congress president that the scheme would be implemented by the Congress government.

On identifying beneficiaries for the scheme, Chidambaram said, “There is enough data. We have enough talent in this country to analyse data and identify the bottom five crore families.” Taking a dig at Finance Minister Arun Jaitley for questioning the scheme’s feasibility, Chidambaram said that Jaitley had raised the same questions when MNREGA was proposed in 2009, but he forgot to say it was not possible when Modi promised to deposit Rs 15 lakh in every bank account and double the income of farmers.

“I don’t wish to reply to anyone who criticise a poverty alleviation programme,” he said, adding that it was the moral duty of every government to alleviate poverty in 21st century.

Asked if additional tax burden would be imposed on people to implement the scheme, an evasive Chidambaram refused to deny it and said, “Taxes change from time to time. Some taxes are scrapped. Some are imposed. It is difficult to say which tax would remain or be imposed. Considering the tax revenues of Centre and State, non-tax revenue, GDP, the scheme is doable within the revenues of the Central and State governments.”

He also said there was no need to fear a reduction in subsidies which are granted and designed to achieve specific social and economic objectives.

Remarking that the Congress alone cannot be blamed for poverty, Chidambaram said, “To eradicate poverty, a minimum income is necessary. Every family needs a minimum income, which the government cannot give fully. That is why the scheme is named minimum income support scheme.”

Admitting that they were aware of the challenges, Chidambaram said, “We are aware of the challenges, we accept it. We will overcome the challenges.” Taking a strong exception todrawing a parallel with the BJP’s PM-Kisan scheme, he said, “Only Rs 17 per day is given to the family under the Kisan scheme. The BJP didn’t announce it in five full-fledged budgets. We have announced NYAY before polls and not in the last month like them. Don’t compare the two and trivialise our scheme.”