Former Union Finance Minister and Congress leader P Chidambaram on Wednesday said the proposed Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) or the minimum income guarantee scheme will be rolled out in phases after a pilot project if the party is voted to power.

The party has done enough homework for the scheme and has consulted enough economists on the subject. All of them had broadly agreed that India could do it. With the growing GDP and improving tax collection, it would be possible to implement the scheme now, he said while addressing a press conference here.

The size of India’s economy is ₹200 lakh crore and in nominal term, this size will increase by 12 per cent every year. Therefore, after five years from now, the GDP would have grown to about ₹400 lakh crore.

The expenditure of the government and all the States put together is ₹60 lakh crore. Revenues are growing at 18 per cent. Therefore, the amount available to the Central and State governments will double in five years. We believe, India has the capacity to implement this programme, he added.

Income support

After considering all the factors and crunching the numbers, the party has come to the conclusion that the Centre and the States should provide income support of ₹6,000 per month to each of the five crore families. “Our calculation shows that the funds required for NYAY scheme will not cross 2 per cent of the country’s GDP,” he said.

“An expert committee will be set up for its implementation and it will design the scheme at every stage and “we will consult the experts’ committee before we move to the next stage,” he added.

Answering a question, Chidambaram said there was enough data through the schemes of the UPA and the NDA government to identify the five crore families.

He also said the NYAY would not lead to stoppage of subsidies that are targeted at meeting specific objectives.