Nyay to end poverty sans any new taxes: Manmohan

New Delhi: Former Prime Minister and senior Congress leader Manmohan Singh, who was also the architect of India's economic reforms as finance minister from 1991 to 1996, said on Saturday that the Nyay scheme of the Congress will usher an era of minimum income guarantee in India, end poverty and restart the economic engine which has "come to a stop" under the Narendra Modi Government.

In a statement, Singh said that implementation of Nyay, which envisages to provide Rs 72,000 per family every year to the poorest 20 per cent of the population, would not entail any new tax on the middle class. He said that the Congress is committed to fiscal discipline and Nyay would cost between 1.2 and 1.5 per cent 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," Singh said.

He said that Nyay is a powerful idea with dual objectives. "On March 25, 2019, Congress President Rahul Gandhi unveiled Nyay — Nyuntam Aay Yojana — to wipe out the last remnants of poverty and to restart stalled economic activity in our nation," he said. Singh said that Nyay has been received with tremendous enthusiasm by people and discussed widely across the nation.

"Nearly 70 per cent of Indians were poor when India attained Independence in 1947. With sound policies adopted by successive governments over the last seven decades, poverty levels have been brought down from 70 to 20 per cent now."