Household expenditure report was ‘election-inspired’ document released by Centre, alleges Congress

The Congress also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of destroying the credibility of India’s economic data.

On February 24, the National Sample Survey Office released the findings of the survey done between August 2022 and July 2023.

Citing the survey, chief executive officer of the Centre’s think tank Niti Aayog BVR Subrahmanyam said that less than 5% of Indians are now expected to be below the poverty line, and extreme destitution has nearly gone away.

A person who lives on a monthly expenditure of Rs 1,000 or less in cities and Rs 816 or less in villages, at 2011-’12 prices is poor, as per the poverty line determined by an Expert Group headed by economist Suresh Tendulkar in 2011.

The survey also said that the difference between the average monthly per capita consumption expenditure between rural and urban households has come down to 71.2% in 2022-’23 compared with 83.9% in 2011-’12. The bottom 5% of India’s rural population, has an average monthly expenditure Rs 1,373 while it is Rs 2,001 for the same category of population in the urban areas.

On Tuesday, Kharge said that the “election-inspired” survey was released after the BJP government was “asleep at the wheel” for ten years.

“If everything in the country is so shiny, as is being shown in the survey, then why do the poorest 5% of rural India, that is about 7 crore people, spend only Rs 46 daily?” Kharge asked in a tweet.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate remarked at a press conference that when any government manipulates economic data, its effect can be seen in the levels of investment. She said that foreign direct investment in India has been falling for the past three years and is at its lowest in 16 years.

“If only 7 crore people are below the poverty line in the country, why do 81 crore people of the country have to be given free ration?” she asked. “Why do 35 crore people of the country have no means of transportation and 45 crore people do not have TV?”

The party says that the data has also revealed the widening gap between the poor and the rich.