Poverty In India Will Fall Below 15 Per Cent In Three Years, Will Be Negligible After 2031, Says FM Arun Jaitley

Union finance minister Arun Jaitley on Monday (15 April) said that continued economic growth and rapid urbanisation would drastically bring down the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2021 and eliminate it in a decade henceforth, reports Economic Times (ET).

“The number of people who live in poverty would drop to below 15 per cent in the next three years and to a negligible level in the 10 years after that,” said Jaitley.

"Urbanisation will increase, the size of the middle-class will grow, and the economy will expand manifolds. These will add to the number of jobs, and as the experience of the past three decades have shown in the liberalised economy, every section of citizens will benefit,” added the minister.

It should be noted that under the current NDA government, India has snowballed into one of the fastest growing large economies in the world.

Jaitley noted that economic growth in recent years had generated enough revenue for states to work more on poverty alleviation, job creation and improving healthcare and education.

Continuing The Glide Path

In an interview, Jaitley stated if the Prime Minister Narendra Modi government is voted back to power, it will continue to cut taxes rates.

“I’m quite clear in my mind that on two issues: at least we had a lot of good fiscal prudence and we brought the rates down. If we are in power we will continue the same glide path,” said Jaitley while addressing a session organised by industry body CII.

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