sábado, 6 de abril de 2019

A minimum framework | The Indian Express

Written by Devashish Mitra |Updated: April 6, 2019 12:21:02 am

<em>The writer is professor of economics and Cramer professor of global affairs at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, US</em>

A minimum framework

For now, NYAY scheme presented by the Congress is bare bones. A lower target minimum income and a smaller transfer amount could make it viable

NYAY, as recently clarified by Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala, will be a lump sum, flat transfer of Rs 6,000 per month to any five-member family lying in the bottom 20 per cent of India’s income distribution. (Illustration: C R Sasikumar)

Economists and policymakers all over the world are discussing the idea of Universal Basic Income (UBI). UBI is informationally the least demanding of all the policies one can think of to attack the problems of poverty, inequality and joblessness. The reason is that it does not require knowing who is poor or how much one is earning. It also has no adverse incentive effects, as, even after receiving the government’s uniform transfer, one is able to additionally earn as much income as possible through one’s labour. The big problem is its financial feasibility. At the moment, I believe UBI is fiscally unfeasible for India. For example, giving every family of five a basic income of Rs 6,000 a month (and scaling appropriately for family size) would cost 70-80 per cent of the current tax revenues.