India is a democratic country where the government is committed to increase the welfare of the peoples through various schemes. On the other hand the opposition party have to highlights the drawbacks of the ruling party.
In the Economic Survey 2016-17 Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had put forward the concept of Universal Basic Income (UBI) to replace the various social welfare schemes to reduce poverty in the country.
On the other hand Rahul Gandhi has promised to give Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG) to the poor citizens of the country to counter NDA's Universal Basic Income (UBI).
In this article we have explained the basic difference between these two schemes.
First of all we should know the basic Features of Universal Basic Income (UBI) and MIG Scheme;
Features of Universal Basic Income are;
1. Universal Basic Income is a periodic (monthly) cash transfer to every citizen in the country. It means this scheme will not differentiate b/w rich or poor, employed or unemployed.
2. Every individual will receive the cash instead of cash kind things like vouchers for goods or services.
Features of Minimum Guarantee Scheme (MIG)
1. The MIG will cover only the poor rural and urban households in the country.
2. This plan will not provide money to all the citizens of the country so it will be a targeted plan.
Now we are the position to find some basic difference between the Minimum Guarantee Scheme (MIG) and Universal Basic Income (UBI).
Difference between MIG and UBI are;
1. Universal Basic Income (UBI) is proposed by NDA government while Minimum Guarantee Scheme (MIG) is proposed by the Congress Party.
2. The concept of UBI was proposed in the economic survey of 2016-17 by the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley while the concept of MIG was proposed by the Congress President Rahul Gandhi in the Chhattisgarh.
3. UBI is a universal scheme i.e. it does not identifies the beneficiaries while the MIG is a targeted scheme for the poor rural and urban households in the country.
4. UBI is unconditional. That means one need not prove his or her unemployment status or socio-economic identity to be eligible for UBI.
While under the MIG scheme the State Government, Union Territories and other institutions need to find out the beneficiaries to disperse the fixed amount in their account.
5. UBI will give money to every member of the family while the MIG will consider whole family as a unit i.e. every member of the family will not get money.
6. The Economic Survey of India's model suggested to provide Rs. 7,620 per annum to 75% of India's population. The income was based on Tendulkar's poverty line of 2011-12 inflation-indexed to 2016-17 while under the MIG; 25 crore poor will get Rs. 6000 per month.
7. It is estimated that UBI will cost around 4.9% of GDP while the total outlay of the MIG would be around 2% of GDP.
Former Finance Minister of India P. Chidambaram says that cost of the MIG scheme could be 1/5th of the cost of a UBI (assuming 20% of the population is below the poverty line).
In the concluding remarks it would be wise to say both the schemes seems fine it they fulfil their desired objectives. Currently India spends around 5.2 per cent of GDP spent on all the centrally sponsored schemes without knowing the requirements of the beneficiaries.
But UBI & MIG will solve this problem by transferring the money into the accounts of the beneficiaries so that they can buy the goods and services of their requirement and choice.