If incentive fine, why not subsidy: PM

New Delhi, January 29

Taking a dig at economists and corporates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked why any dole for industries was called incentive or subvention, while for farmer it was derogatorily called subsidy.

“Why is it that subsidies going to the well-off are portrayed in a positive manner?” he said at the ET Global Business Summit.

He said the revenue lost to incentives for corporate taxpayers was over Rs 62,000 crore, while dividends and long-term capital gains on shares traded on stock exchanges were exempt from income tax even though it was not the poor who earned them.

Double taxation avoidance treaties have in some cases resulted in double non-taxation and this, too, is not counted in the Rs 62,000 crore, he said. “Yet these are rarely referred to by those who seek reduction of subsidies. Perhaps these are seen as incentives for investment. I wonder whether if the fertiliser subsidy is re-named as ‘incentive for agricultural production’, some experts will view it differently,” he said.

The PM said, “I am not arguing that all subsidies are good. We have to eliminate bad subsidies, whether or not they are called subsidies.” — PTI

"Does this difference in language reflect a difference in our attitude? Why any dole for industries is called incentive or subvention, while for farmer it is derogatorily called subsidy? " - Narendra Modi, PM