New Delhi: They say that everything is fair in love and war. If the Lok Sabha election is the nearest we can get to war in a democratic country, then Congress President Rahul Gandhi is abiding to the adage to the hilt.
Rahul Gandhi to counter Narendra Modi’s unstoppable ride to victory in the election has promised Rs. 72,000 per year to every family living in the bottom of the income level or 20% of the poor with his Nyutam Aay Yogana or Nyay – the minimum income scheme.
Actually he has promised the moon to the voters in the bottom of the income chain without giving out any clear blueprint of how to go about implementing it.
Why is Rahul Gandhi hiding the hard truths behind the implementation of the scheme?
This is where Rahul Gandhi is duping the people to win the election war. If he is silent about the implementation of his pet scheme, the brains behind Nyay are speaking out about the burdens that such an expedient scheme will cause to the taxpayers of the country.
Abhijit Banerjee, an Indian American economist and professor at MIT is one of the main economists that has advised the Congress party on this scheme. He has categorically stated that the middle class must be taxed in order implement Nyay.
The scheme envisages that 5 crore families in India will get Rs. 72,000. This translates into a whopping Rs. 3.6 lakh crore per year for the exchequer. This is will come around 2% of the GDP.
Abhijit Banerjee himself has said in an interview to the national media that the fiscal pressure on the government will be high. Fearing the huge fiscal burden the economist had told the Congress Working Committee to keep the yearly payment to Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 36,000.
However, the party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi opted for the higher amount disregarding the harm it will befall the country.
Even Abhijit Banerjee, the Congress economic advisor, is not supporting high fiscal deficit which was the norm during Manmohan Singh’s tenure as the Prime Minister. The current NDA government has drastically reduced the fiscal deficit which was threatening the economy.
The economist went on to say that Nyay will not be viable immediately without cutting down the already existing subsidies. This is where we question the Congress’s President’s promise that no existing subsidies will be cut.
The present subsidy outlay for the fiscal 2018-19 is Rs. 3.34 lakh crore. Add to it the Rs. 3.36 lakh crore of Nyay and you get a huge Rs. 6.94 lakh crore of burden to the tax payers.
If the subsidies are not cut when Nyay is rolled out then it is a recipe for financial disaster. On the other hand a subsidy cut will harm many sectors of the economy depended on it.
If things go according to what Abhijith Banerjee says, then those belonging to the middle class will be the hardest hit. He advocates taxing the middle income to fuel the Nyay scheme because middle income people have not been effectively taxed.
The Congress economic advisor speaks of raising income tax, GST rates must rise and wealth tax raised. Most of the rate hike will tax the middle class the most.
The Congress is planning to raise taxes in an unprecedented scale. With no real issue to fight against the ruling BJP party they have resorted to dole out money to the poor voters.
The party president’s double standard was on the fore recently when he criticized Narendra Modi for increasing Angel Tax when his party is actually preparing the biggest tax rise in recent times.
Rahul Gandhi has learned the art of deceiving the people of his country. Without mentioning the source of the high cost scheme he is asking the voters to vote for him.
He knows that if voters are aware of the taxes he and his party members are planning to rise in order to implement Nyay, then he won’t stand a chance in the elections.
