State Bank of India comes up with different campaigns and service channels to connect with its customers better. An addition to this creative outlook is the proposal of ‘Adopt-A-Family’ scheme by the team of economists at SBI. What does this scheme intend to do? How will it help society? Here is a detailed report on the proposed scheme.
‘Adopt-A-Family’ scheme offers incentives to taxpayers who adopt a below poverty line (BPL) family whose income has been disturbed due to COVID-19. The scheme has been planned on the lines of the Jan Bhagidari concept that was applicable to public goods. The economists stated that the proposed scheme is going to be purely voluntary. A taxpayer with an yearly income of Rs.10 lakh or more might be incentivised to adopt a BPL family for a year with a defined amount, such as Rs.5,000 per month.
The proposed scheme can help BPL families that are badly affected due to COVID-19 pandemic and can get monetary aid of up to Rs.60,000, reducing the financial responsibility of the government.
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A report states that there are about 70 lakh taxpayers in India who earn a gross annual income of Rs.10 lakh and above. According to economists, even if 10% out of this group enrol for the scheme, it will benefit about 7 lakh families, i.e. 28 lakh family members.
Further, the economists shared that an ideal incentive of an income tax deduction equal to Rs.50,000 over and above the deduction available under Section 80C will boost the scheme’s popularity among taxpayers. In addition, the right distribution of the scheme’s benefits can be monitored through bank accounts enabled through Aadhaar authorisation.
If this kind of incentive is approved, the government will lose about Rs.1050 crore in the income tax collection for the financial year. On the other hand, if the government provides the support of Rs.50,000 per family for 7 lakh families, the resulting fiscal cost will be Rs.3,500 crore alongside a consumption boom of Rs.11,666 crore.
SBI economists also provided the example of ‘Give Up’ campaign of the government for subsidised LPG cylinders to highlight the benefits of incentivising for the adoption of ‘Adopt-A-Family’ scheme.
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