Household expenditure report election-inspired: Congress

According to NITI Aayog, the broad findings of the All India Household Consumption Expenditure Survey, released on February 24, indicated that poverty levels were down to 5% and people were becoming prosperous in both rural and urban areas.

The survey is usually conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) every five years, but data for the 2017-18 survey, conducted soon after demonetisation and the implementation of GST, was not released, making the February 24 report the latest since 2011-12.

“We have only one demand, for correct information, the Census of 2021 should be done as soon as possible and a caste census should be a part of it. Congress party will definitely get it done, after INDIA (bloc) forms Govt!” Kharge wrote.

At a press conference at the AICC headquarters, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate called the survey report yet another “narrative setting” report of the government to claim India’s poverty had been reduced to 5%.

“This essentially means only seven crore Indians are poor now and everybody else is either middle-class or rich… But the devil lies in the details,” Shrinate said.

“This report tells you a very unsettling truth… the divide between the rich and the poor, between urban and rural India is widening with the passage of every minute,” Shrinate said.

She said “the biggest headline” of the report was that “the poorest 5% of Indians have to live with Rs 46 a day and with that, they have to spend on food, transport, clothing, medicine and on education of their children”.

“How do you explain this income equality against which the Congress has been raising its voice? It is a ticking time bomb,” Shrinate said, adding, “Why is the Modi government destroying the credibility of our economic data consistently.”