The Congress's minimum income guarantee scheme called Nyay will be rolled out in phases among 5 crore beneficiary families, senior party leader P. Chidambaram said on Wednesday.

At a press conference in New Delhi, the former finance minister said economists and experts were consulted and former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan was of the view that the implementation of the scheme is possible. He said the allocation for the scheme is expected to constitute 1.8 per cent of the GDP.

'Our calculation shows that it will not cross 2 per cent of the GDP, it will be 1.8 per cent of the GDP at any given point of time,' he said. “The scheme will be rolled out in phases and we will cover the five crore families in phases.”

The senior party leader said the scheme has to be tested in the field before being rolled out. An expert committee will be set up for the implementation and it will design it at every stage and “we will consult the committee before we move to next stage”.

There is enough data to identify the 5 crore poorest families, Chidambaram added.