UBI only after withdrawal of present schemes: Arvind Subramanian

TIL Desk/Business/Ahmedabad-Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian, on Saturday said Universal Basic Income (UBI), as proposed in the recent Economic Survey, can be put in place only after withdrawal of the existing welfare projects.

“The cost of this programme (UBI) is so huge that it cannot be an add-on to the existing programmes (welfare schemes) as the government cannot afford it and the government’s finances will go bust,” Subramanian said while addressing students of the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (IIM-A) here.

“In India, UBI scheme is about upliftment of the poor… The government spends a lot of money in social welfare schemes, but they do not reach the targeted audience,” he said.  “Advantage of UBI is a very interesting way of overcoming the problem of governmental targeted spending,” Subramanian, also an alumnus of IIM-A, said.