What would a basic income cost in India?
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Total cost per year
35.1 trillion rupees
about 402 billion US dollars
1.46 billion people × ₹2,000 a month × 12 months
Compared with
- Government expense (central) (2022)74.1%
- Government revenue (central, excl. grants) (2022)108%
- Tax revenue (central government) (2022)147%
- GDP (nominal) (2025)10.2%
India in numbers
India has a population of 1.46 billion (2025) and a GDP of 345 trillion rupees (about 3.96 trillion US dollars) in 2025.
Paying everyone ₹2,000 a month would cost 35.1 trillion rupees a year (about 402 billion US dollars), or 10.2% of GDP. That equals 74.1% of central government expense (2022), 108% of its revenue (2022), and 147% of its tax revenue (2022).
Children only (under 18: 430 million) would cost 10.3 trillion rupees a year (3% of GDP); adults only (18 and over: 1.03 billion), 24.8 trillion rupees (7.2%).
Default amount: ₹2,000 a month is a round figure chosen by the editors for this calculator. For comparison, the World Bank's poverty line of $3.00 a day is about ₹1,800 a month here; paying that to everyone would cost 9.2% of GDP.
How to read this
This is the gross cost: the total paid out. The real net cost depends on which taxes fund it, which benefits or tax breaks it replaces and whether the payment is taxed. The population, budget and GDP figures are not all from the same year (see the sources).
Sources for the figures
- GDP
- World Bank, World Development Indicators: GDP in current local currency units (NY.GDP.MKTP.CN), 2025. Updated 8 Oct 2026. India and Egypt report on a fiscal-year basis
- World Bank: GDP in current local currency (NY.GDP.MKTP.CN) and in current US dollars (NY.GDP.MKTP.CD), 2025
- Government expense and tax revenue
- World Bank: central government expense, revenue excluding grants and tax revenue, % of GDP (GC.XPN.TOTL.GD.ZS, GC.REV.XGRT.GD.ZS, GC.TAX.TOTL.GD.ZS), 2022
- Default amount
- World Bank: international poverty line of $3.00 a day (2021 PPP), June 2025 update
- World Bank: PPP conversion factor, household final consumption (PA.NUS.PRVT.PP), 2025
- Retrieved from the World Bank API on November 9, 2026 (CC BY 4.0). Government figures are central government, as a share of GDP in their own year, applied to the latest GDP.