Budget 2019 brings guaranteed income of Rs 6000 for farmers: Here's how
New Delhi : Union budget 2019 has unfolded huge gifts for poor people in India. Finance Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday announced a guaranteed income scheme for farmers. Accordingly, a new income scheme, Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman (PM Kisan) has been proposed in support to farmers.
Under the framer income scheme, vulnerable farmers having less than two hectare of land will be eligible for the benefit under the scheme.
Goyal announced that the government will provide a direct income support of Rs 6,000 per annum to the farmers. “This income support will be transferred directly to beneficiary farmers in three equal instalments,” Goyal said.
Around 12 crore farming families will be directly benefitted from this scheme. The finance minister also announced setting up of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi for disbursement of money to the farmers. He announced a fund of Rs 75,000 crore for the PM Kisan scheme for 2019-20 and Rs 20,000 crore for the current, 2018-19 financial year.
The idea of a guaranteed basic income for the poor was arguable in the Economic Survey 2016-17 when Arvind Subramanian was the chief economic adviser to the Narendra Modi government. However, the idea did not get support from other stakeholders in the government with the Niti Aayog declaring it unfeasible.
The Economic Survey 2016-17 talked about a Quasi-Universal Basic Income Scheme (QUBI). The survey outlined a Universal Basic Income (UBI) scheme as move to replace existing subsidies.
But the idea of a guaranteed income scheme gained political input after Congress president Rahul Gandhi made it a poll board at a public rally in Chhattisgarh. Gandhi said if the Congress is voted to power in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the new government would put into practice a minimum income guarantee scheme for the poor in order to eliminate poverty and hunger.
