Chidambaram backs Nyay scheme, says nobody questioned Modi's Rs 15 lakh math

New Delhi, Mar 27: Former finance minister P Chidambaram today took a strong defence of the Congress' proposed income scheme Nyay, saying the Indian economy had the capacity to implement the scheme, which would be rolled out in phases.

Addressing a press conference, Chidambaram also hit out the Narendra Modi government, saying no one questioned the Prime Minister on the math of his 2014 poll promise where he said Rs 15 lakh would be deposited in the bank account of every Indian.

"Existing schemes for the poor like ICDS will not be scrapped and thus people had nothing to fear. "Subsidies which have been granted to achieve special socio-economic objectives will not be affected by NYAY," Chidambaram said.

The senior Congress leader, while explaining the scheme, said: "It's a standard transfer of Rs 6,000 per month to five crore families, which is Rs 72,000 per year. This will be transferred to the account of the women in household. With this, tax revenues will rise and GDP will rise. Some taxes are scrapped and some taxes are imposed. But the given the tax and non-tax revenue of central and state governments and the GDP, this scheme is perfectly doable."

He also said that the Congress party has consulted economists and experts before making the income guarantee poll promise. "We have consulted enough economists, enough experts on the subject. All of them have agreed that India has the capacity to implement such a scheme."