Congress promises to impose 5 per cent cess on one per cent richest Indians

New Delhi: The Congress said it would impose a five per cent cess on the incomes of the top one per cent richest Indians, when it comes to power. The resolution on "Agriculture, Employment and Poverty Alleviation", adopted at the party's 84th plenary here, also said that the party shall create a National Poverty Alleviation Fund while this 5 per cent cess would "be used directly to give education scholarships to the children from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and other BPL families". The Congress also noted that the rising levels of income inequality is a direct result of the "anti-poor policies" of the Narendra Modi government. "The BJP had promised 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas', but has acted contrary to their slogan. The wealth of the richest one percent has gone up by 73 per cent while the wealth of the bottom half of the population has grown by just 1 per cent during the BJP regime," it added on Saturday. The party said Aadhaar would be used to improve targeting the eligible beneficiaries under the National Social Assistance Programme (NSAP) and other welfare schemes. Attacking BJP's "flawed and deliberate" anti-farmer policies, it said: "The farmers today face mounting indebtedness, non-remunerative prices for their crops, increasing cost of production and declining agricultural credit, forcing many farmers to commit suicide." "The anti-farmer mindset of the BJP stands exposed as agricultural growth under the NDA II (2014-18) as well as during NDA I (1998-2004), has fallen to half of growth levels achieved during the UPA government headed by former Prime Minister Monmohan Singh," said the resolution. The party said BJP government is duping the farmers by making empty noises of doubling farm incomes by 2022. Congress also resolved to bring in a farmer-centric paradigm shift in the Indian agriculture and restore profitability, taking a humanitarian and compassionate approach to enhance farmers' incomes, ensuring them dignity, a good education to their children, healthcare to their families and financial and social security through pensions to farmers and farm workers. "We would bring a loan waiver scheme for all small and marginal farmers in the country on the pattern of the farm loan waiver program of the UPA govt in 2009 benefitting 3.2 crore farmers." The party also resolved to review the methodology used by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices to determine the MSP to guarantee remunerative income to the farmers, factoring all relevant input costs including warehousing and transportation. It said that it would review The Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna and will draft a new insurance scheme which is beneficial to farmers rather than private insurance companies. "Congress plans to have a network of food-parks/ special agricultural zones. The issue of GST on agricultural equipment and other inputs would be re-examined to lower input costs for the farmer," it added. It also said the party would renew its focus on manpower intensive manufacturing for domestic and export sectors, making India the destination of choice for international manufacturing. The resolution also said the party would facilitate the setting up of IT Skill Upgradation Fund.