$699 per month tax free.

According to a pre-Budget survey by C-Voter, "Close to 77% respondents said an income of up to Rs 50,000 per month was required to run a household with four members," Mint. "Speaking in pure statistical terms, the magical figure is Rs 52,073 per month, or Rs 6,24,881 per year." At today's exchange rate of about Rs 74.5 to the dollar, Rs 52,073 converts to $699 and Rs 6,24,881 converts to $8387. The per capita gross national income (GNI) is the GNI of a country divided by its population, masterclass. India's per capita GNI in 2020 was $1,920 per year, World Bank. In terms of purchasing power parity (PPP), which compares the cost of a basket of goods in India and the US, or how much goods the same number of dollars will buy in India and in the US, India's PPP was $6,440 in 2020, World Bank. So, Indians want their earnings to increase four times and "More than 83% wanted this income to entirely tax free." At present income tax is levied on any income above Rs 250,000 per year, with slightly lower rates at higher levels of income if they give up all exemptions, ET. But, very few people have opted for the new rates, moneycontrol.  Rising rates of surcharge and a 4% cess means that any income above Rs 50 million in the financial year will attract tax at 42.7%, HT. "More than 76% respondents want a universal basic income for all residents," and more than 91% want benefits to be paid to the unemployed. Universal basic income is a financial grant by the government to every citizen regardless of wealth or earning, wikipedia. This is because "200 million jobs are missing from the economy". "For India's employment-to-population ratio to be at the global average, nearly 600 people need to be at work. Currently, only a little more than 400 million are," wrote Andy Mukherjee. The pandemic has hurt the informal economy which employed 92% of the participating labor force, ORF. "Of late this pandemic-exacerbated 'formalization' has led to a fiscal mirage. New Delhi's tax bounty -- net of what it shares with state governments -- has swelled by 26% in the fiscal year ending ending March 31, according to Bloomberg Economics." Because, "Producer price inflation at a three-decade high has stretched the nominal gross domestic product by 17.6%, giving a further boost to the activity that can be taxed." The Economic Survey of India for 2020-21 was revealed yesterday and projected a growth rate of 8-8.5% in the financial year 2022-23, taking the price crude oil at $70-75 per barrel, ET. India is the fastest growing economy in the world, retail inflation is at 5.59%, wholesale inflation is at 13.56%, unemployment is at 7.9% but labor participation rate has dropped from 46% in 2016 to just over 40% in 2021 and fiscal deficit is dropping because of buoyant tax collections, TOI. The US is facing stagflation, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) reduced interest rate because the property sector is in distress, but "a steady-state average real GDP growth rate of around 6.7% to 7% can be a reasonably conservative assumption for India for the rest of the decade", wrote Prof V Anantha Nageswaran. Nageswaran has been appointed the new Chief Economic Adviser to the government, ET. The Indian economy is doing better than the US and China and yet people want a universal basic income. And tax free income of $8387. Strange.