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Lok Sabha elections 2019| ‘No new tax for Nyay’: Manmohan Singh
In a statement, Singh said that implementation of Nyay, which aims to provide Rs 72,000 per family every year to the poorest 20% of population, would not entail any new tax on the middle class.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday said that Nyay scheme of the Congress will usher in an era of minimum income guarantee in India, end poverty and restart the economic engine which has “come to a stop” under the present government.
In a statement, Singh said that implementation of Nyay, which aims to provide Rs 72,000 per family every year to the poorest 20% of population, would not entail any new tax on the middle class.
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He said that the Congress is committed to fiscal discipline and Nyay would cost between 1.2% and 1.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at its peak.
“Our nearly $3-trillion economy has the fiscal capacity to absorb this expenditure. There will be no need for any new taxes on the middle class to finance Nyay. The economic stimulus that Nyay will provide will further help in fiscal discipline. It has been conceptualised after much thought and consultations with experts,” Manmohan Singh said.
Speaking at a rally in Tamil Nadu last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had attacked the scheme, saying, “They are now saying ‘ab hoga nyay’, now there will be justice…This means that they have admitted that they did injustice for 60 years.”
Singh was the finance minister of the country from 1991-96.
