Is Rahul Gandhi's ambitious poll promise of minimum income guarantee scheme economically viable?

New Delhi, March 26: India's main opposition Congress party will give 72,000 rupees a year to the country's poorest families if it is voted back to power, its president said on Monday. Describing it as a "final assault on poverty", Congress President Rahul Gandhi told reporters in New Delhi that the scheme would benefit 250 million people.

He has announced that if elected to power, 5 crore poorest families will receive Rs 72,000 a year. This Minimum Income Guarantee will be the final assault on poverty.

We are going to give justice to the poor people in India. Congress President Rahul Gandhi was confident while declaring this scheme, with the launch of Minimum income guaranty scheme. Rahul Gandhi claimed that this is the only scheme in the world. In this scheme, 20 % of poor families who earn below 12000 Rupees per month, will benefit from this scheme. These families will get the benefit of 72000 rupees per year by direct bank transfer.

He further said, as promised in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh after winning elections we have gave loan waiver to the farmers of this area.

"It is economically possible?” Rahul answered on this question, “We have done all the calculations, asked the best economists, and they all backed us. We have been studying the scheme for four-five months," he said, describing it as an "extremely powerful, dynamic, well-thought-through idea."

He also criticized Prime Minister on the recent farmer's scheme, The government recently implemented the PM Kisan plan that promises Rs. 6,000 a year to small and marginal farmers.

Rahul Gandhi announced the scheme on a day the poll process formally took off as candidates for the first round of polling filed their papers. Minutes before the press conference, the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party's top policy-making body had met to finalise its manifesto."The final assault on poverty has begun," he said of the scheme named Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) by his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra at a recent party conclave in Gujarat.

The money will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of 20 per cent of the poorest in the country. The scheme, said the Congress president, would lift five crore families or 25 crore people out of poverty.

He explained that any family earning less than Rs. 12,000 a month will receive Rs. 6,000 every month in its bank account.