Political war of words erupts over UP’s PCI

A “decline” has been witnessed in the per capita income in the state apparently due to the adverse impact of Covid on the economy

LUCKNOW: A war of words is being witnessed in the political sphere over the state’s per capita income (PCI) ahead of the 2022 Uttar Pradesh assembly election.

A “decline” has been witnessed in the per capita income in the state apparently due to the adverse impact of Covid-19 on the state’s economy.

The State Planning Institute (Economics and Statistics Division), Uttar Pradesh, on September 16, 2021, released data about the state’s income, showing a negative growth of (-) 0.7% in the state’s per capita income.

“The per capita income of UP (in terms of NSDP at current prices) for the year 2018-2019, 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 has shown a growth of 7.7%, 7.1% and (-) 0.7% respectively. Per Capita income is estimated to be Rs 62,372 in 2018-2019, Rs 66,811 in 2019-2020 and Rs 66,351 in 2020-2021,” read a press statement of the institute.

It further gives data showing UP’s per capita income at constant prices remained 1.8%, 2.0% and (-) 7.6% in 2018-2019, 20192020 and 2020-2021 respectively. In absolute terms, the per capita income at constant prices remained Rs 42,519, Rs 43,375 and Rs 40,092 during this period.

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has often spoken about the state government’s efforts to increase the per capita income.

“In the next five years, the per capita income of Uttar Pradesh will exceed the country’s per capita income,” read a tweet by ANI quoting Yogi Adityanath at a programme in Varanasi recently.

The Opposition is, however, not convinced. Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati on Thursday posted two different tweets, using different data, to make their point about what they described as declining per capita income.

“In Uttar Pradesh, the per capita income has come down during the BJP regime to onethird the per capita income during the tenure of the Samajwadi Party government. Inflation has gone up manifold while earnings and savings in banks have come down to half. The BJP leaders, who promised “achche din” should tell the common man what should be done in view of bad economy,” said Akhilesh Yadav in a tweet.

With his tweet, he attached a chart ’How Per Capita Incomes Grew In The Five Poll-bound States’ to make his point.

BSP chief Mayawati in a tweet said, “The Reserve Bank of India’s statistics about the people’s per capita income not going up and crores of people remaining backward certify the common belief that the BJP’s claims about development remain in the air and turn out to be ‘jumlebazi’. Why is it so during the tenure of its (BJP) double-engine government?”

Professor Yashvir Tyagi, former head of the department of economics at Lucknow University, said, “Per capita income is an important macro-economic indicator that broadly depicts the average standard of living of population in a state or country.

However, the PCI of UP is quite low. As a percentage of the national per capita income of Rs 1,34,186, the PCI of UP at Rs 66,811 was just about 50% in the year 2019-20 at current prices. Not surprisingly, in terms of PCI (at current prices), the rank of UP among all the states of India was second from the bottom in the year 2019-20. Only Bihar lies below UP. PCI of UP is also growing slowly over time.”

Tyagi also said, “At constant prices (discounting inflation), the average annual growth rate of PCI between 2017-2020 was only about 3%.

“To raise PCI, apart from accelerating the growth of state income in the coming years, there is also a need to control and stabilise the population. This would boost PCI.

“It is highly unrealistic to believe that PCI of UP will exceed PCI of India in the next five years. It amounts to doubling PCI in only five years, which looks highly improbable.”

SP CHIEF AKHILESH YADAV AND BSP PRESIDENT MAYAWATI POSTED TWO DIFFERENT TWEETS, USING DIFFERENT DATA, TO MAKE THEIR POINT