Budget 2017 may roll out pilot on income transfer scheme

Economic Survey likely to have a chapter on it; Budget focus likely to be on rural sector

The government is unlikely to make any mega announcement on the nationwide roll-out of the much-debated basic income transfer scheme in the Budget. There could be a passing reference to a pilot in select districts.

The Budget would be presented on February 1 this year. The Economic Survey, expected a day before, could devote an entire chapter to it, according to finance ministry officials.

The Budget's focus is likely to be on the rural sector, with the highlight being the ranking of panchayats on 36 benchmarks to tailor future assistance.

A universal income scheme for the poor, or even the poorest, could be a vote-catcher with Assembly elections in five states slated immediately after the presentation of the Budget. It also dovetails into Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of devoting the year to "garib kalyan" (welfare of the poor).

An official with a social sector ministry said, "We should have had some inkling about a mega scheme like universal income transfer. But we have not been consulted yet." 

The Centre transfers old age, widow and disability pensions and family benefit scheme benefits as cash. It is also experimenting with cash transfers in place of grain as a pilot project in some Union Territories.

Officials said the universal basic income scheme had been discussed several times during the last three years both at the policy level and as inputs to the government, but there was little forward movement on the issue. Presentations have been made to the Prime Minister’s Office and the cabinet secretariat.

A watered-down universal basic income scheme will entail clubbing the cash components of several schemes and transferring the combined amount into beneficiaries' accounts every month.

A more likely scenario is a strong rural push in the Budget on improving the standard of living in panchayats, which will be assessed for women self-help groups, linkage to banks, status of irrigation, presence of soil health cards and households with electricity. These will be used for targeted intervention and will be monitored through the Socio-Economic Caste Census.

Overall, the Budget stress is likely to be on rural India and through a convergence of various programmes to bring a fixed number of people out of deprivation as identified by the Socio-Economic Caste Census over a period of time.

With inputs from Archis Mohan