Distancing the party from the remarks made by prominent member Sam Pitroda, Congress president Rahul Gandhi Friday said that the money wouldn’t be raised from the middle class by increasing taxes for NYAY scheme, news agency PTI reported. On Thursday, Sam Pitroda had said that the middle class must not be selfish and prepared to pay more taxes to fund Congress’ minimum income guarantee scheme. Following his remarks, Congress appeared to be in major damage control mode, with senior leaders such as P Chidambaram and Surjewala saying that that is not the party’s stand.
“I have already said in a press conference and various interviews: there will be no increase in the tax burden of the middle class. This is our promise”, Chidamabram tweeted.
Speaking to a TV news channel, Sam Pitroda had also said that the middle class will have more opportunities and more jobs and the taxes may go up a little bit if NYAY comes into being. The middle class should not be selfish and have a “big heart”, he added.
ASam Pitroda already has been receiving flak on social media for his remarks. Rahul Gandhi also said that the money would be generated by cutting down on wasteful government expenditure as also by mobilising additional resources.
On raising funds for NYAY, former finance minister P Chidambaram had recently said that the scheme would not affect Centre’s fiscal balance.
The minimum guaranteed income scheme announced will be rolled out in phases and will cost about 1.8 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) at any given time. “….subsidies which are granted to address specific social economic objectives will not be affected,” he also said.
Launching the NYAY last month, Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said that 5 crore poor families will be given Rs 72,000 each a year under the scheme if his party is voted to power. As many as 20 per cent of families that are poor and 25 crore people will benefit from the scheme, he added.