The Congress on Tuesday described the Household Consumption Expenditure report of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) as “election-inspired survey” and questioned the different estimates of poverty given by different agencies in the past one year.
The party also accused the Narendra Modi government of “destroying” the credibility of the country’s economic data.
Editorial | Decoding consumption: On the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey
After a gap of more than 10 years, the NSSO, under the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, had released data on Household Consumption Expenditure for 2022-23 on Saturday. A day later, NITI Aayog CEO B.V. R. Subrahmanyam had said the latest consumer expenditure survey indicated that poverty has come down to 5% in the country.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, in a post on X, accused the Modi government of coming out with “an election inspired survey after [being] asleep at the wheel for 10 years”. Mr. Kharge asked if everything in the country was so shiny as is shown in the report, why the poorest 5% of rural India was spending only ₹46 daily.
“Why did the poorest 5% of families get the least benefit from government schemes — only ₹68/month? Why is the monthly income of farmers less than the average income of rural India? Why has the fuel expenditure of rural families reduced by only 1.5% while the Modi government continues to boast of the success of the Ujjwala scheme?” the Congress chief asked.
“Citing the survey report, NITI Aayog officials are saying poverty in India is now only 5%, but according to another report of the Multi-Dimensional Poverty Index of the same NITI Aayog, the poverty figure is 11.28%,” he said.
“Experts are saying that the Centre can change the criteria of measuring Food Inflation (CPI) data based on this survey. Is this not an attempt to hide the back-breaking price rise by using fake data?” he asked.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the government’s claim that India’s poverty had been reduced to 5% was yet another “narrative-setting” effort.
Taking a swipe at the Prime Minister recent underwater dive to perform puja at Dwarka (Gujarat), he said, “Modiji, you can dive anything, but do not dive the reputation of India’s universal data collection and surveys earned over the years”.
“Experts are saying that the Centre can change the criteria of measuring Food Inflation (CPI) data based on this survey. Is this not an attempt to hide the back-breaking price rise by using fake data?” he asked.
At a press conference here, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the government’s claim that India’s poverty had been reduced to 5% was yet another “narrative-setting” effort. She said the report’s claims of 5 per cent poor means only seven crore Indians are poor now and everybody else is either middle-class or rich. “Data proves your (government) claims as bogus. If seven crore Indians are poor, why are you forced to give over 80 crore Indians free rations,” she asked.
“Why is the Modi government destroying the credibility of our economic data consistently,” she asked.
