The middle-class is increasing rapidly in the country. Think tank ‘People Research on India’s Consumer Economy’ (PRICE), considers people who earn 5-30 lakhs annually as belonging in the middle-class. And now, their number has gone up to 31%, which was only 14% back in 2004-05. This is the reason why even amidst adverse world conditions, Indian consumers maintained adequate consumption. It is interesting to note that the annual income of the MPs in the country is lesser than the upper limit of 30 lakhs of the middle-class.
The income of MPs, including all the allowances is 27.6 lakh rupees, but this is around 16 times more than the average per capita income in the country. The Union Ministry of Statistics has predicted that in the financial year 2022-23, the per capita income will be 1, 70, 620 rupees.
According to the statistics of the ‘World Inequality Database’, in 2021, people earning 18.6 lakhs or more annually were included in the 1% of the richest Indians. Further, the personal assets of 40% people out of the middle-class was just a little more than 3 lakh rupees in 2021. Which means that out of every 100 people in the country, 40 earn less than 25, 000 rupees per month.
