SBI Economists Propose ‘Adopt-A-Family’ Scheme For Taxpayers To Sponsor BPL Families For Income Tax Benefits

Economists from the State Bank of India (SBI) have put forth an ‘Adopt-A-Family’ scheme in accordance with which a taxpayer (preferably one who earns more than INR 10 lakh per annum) will be incentivised with income tax rebates if they sponsor a BPL family. Many families falling below the poverty line have seen their incomes suffer due to the pandemic.

This initiative attempts to work for their well-being without putting further fiscal burden on the central government, Livemint reports.

As of now, estimates suggest that about 70 lakh tax payers in India earn more than Rs 10 lakh annually. It is reported that even if 10 per cent of these individuals adopt this project, they can work towards the benefit of almost 7 lakh families that could comprise 28 lakh citizens in total.

“Echoing the concept of Jan Bhagidari to public goods, we proposed a scheme called “ADOPT-A-FAMILY". Under this scheme, which is purely voluntary, a taxpayer (probably annual income of Rs 10 lakh or more) may be incentivised to adopts a BPL family for a year with a specified amount (say Rs 5,000 per month),” the economists noted.

They further added, “To boost the scheme, government can ideally incentivise at least 50,000 tax deduction over and above 80C limits to the taxpayer. This can be monitored by Bank accounts enabled through Aadhaar payments.”

If the Narendra Modi-led government does give out the support of Rs 50,000 to 7 lakh families, it will result in a fiscal cost of Rs 3,500 crore and result in a consumption boom or upswing of Rs 11,666 crore.