Just convert to dollars.

"The average Indian's monthly spending increased 9.2% to Rs 4,122 in rural areas and 8.3% to Rs 6,996 in urban regions in 2023-24 compared to the previous year," as "The National Statistics Office's Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) showed poorer classes increased spending at a faster rate while expenditure by the richest declined even in nominal terms, leading to reduced consumption inequality." Rural India spent 54% on food. HT. One US dollar buys Rs 85.77 this morning. xe.com. Taking a rate of Rs 85.5 to $1, rural India spends $48.21 per month, or $1.61 per day, while urban India spends $81.47 per month, or $2.72 per day. "The last change was in September 2022, when the World Bank adopted $2.15 as the international poverty line using the 2017 PPP." unstats.un.org. "The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for the average adult." By this metric, the poverty line for a lower-middle income country like India is $3.65 per day in PPP. wikipedia. So, according to the government's own figures, average Indians in both rural and urban areas are living in abject poverty. "The expenditure on social services has increased from 6.7% of GDP in 2017-18 to 7.8% of GDP in 2023-24." As a result 135 million Indians are estimated to have escaped from multidimensional poverty and the National Multidimensional Poverty Index has nearly halved, according to the Economic Survey 2024. pib.gov.in. Distributing handouts may improve the poverty index but net household financial savings (flow) during 2023-24 "stood at 5.3% of gross domestic product (GDP), up slightly from 5% in 2022-23. In 2019-20, they stood at 8.1%." Income growth has slowed, higher spending on food because of high prices and more loans to pay for consumption resulted in a lower savings rate, wrote Vivek Kaul. "Once the backbone of domestic consumption, India's middle class, which represents 31% of its population, is cutting back sharply on daily and discretionary expenditure." FE. The Union government has increased investment spending to stimulate growth, "But fresh private investment continues to remain subdued. These companies are probably waiting for consumption to pick up to a level where the expansion of capacity becomes a necessity." The Union Budget should aim to boost consumption and "The fastest way of doing so is through tax cuts," Kaul. "net direct tax collection grew 16.45% year-on-year to over Rs 15.82 trillion till December 17 this fiscal," which "includes corporate tax of over Rs 7.42 trillion and and non-corporate tax mop-up of Rs 7.97 trillion." BS. Individuals are paying more income tax than the corporate sector. "The net goods and services tax (GST) collection grew marginally by 3.3% year-on-year to Rs 1.54 trillion in December," while the gross GST collections rose by 7.3% to Rs 1.76 trillion. BS. Consumers pay the gross collection while companies get the refunds. They can't reduce taxes because handouts are essential to maintain the fiction of falling poverty rates. Just convert to dollars. And every average Indian becomes poor.