Bhopal: On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the underprivileged had their rights and money stolen during a period of "corruption and scams" preceding 2014.
More people are paying taxes, which, according to Modi, demonstrates that they trust their money is being put to good use by the government.
He was virtually speaking to the newly hired faculty of the CM Rise Government Mahatma Gandhi Higher Secondary School in Bhopal, the state capital of Madhya Pradesh.
The prime minister claimed that the first year of "Amrit Kaal" had already seen the emergence of encouraging reports, indicating rising prosperity and a decline in poverty.
According to a research by the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, 13.50 crore Indians have escaped poverty in the last five years. From Rs 4 lakh in 2014, the average income of Indians has soared over the past nine years to Rs 13 lakh, as evidenced by the number of Income Tax returns," he said.
He also noted a trend towards people moving from lower to higher socioeconomic brackets.
Data, Modi said, demonstrates that all economic sectors are strengthening and creating new job opportunities.
Citizens' trust in government has been growing. They're coming up to deposit their tax money, he continued, because they have faith that every cent would go towards building up the country.
He claimed that the country's economy has risen to fifth in the world from tenth in 2014.
Before 2014, corruption and frauds meant that impoverished people's rights and money were routinely stolen long before they reached their bank accounts. It's all going straight into their accounts now," the Prime Minister remarked.
More resources may be allocated to social programmes for the needy if "leakage in the system" is reduced, he argued.—Inputs from Agencies