Fact-check: Did Finance Ministry state inflation has affected rich more than poor?

A graphic featuring a picture of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is making the rounds on social media. It claims that the Finance Ministry said that inflation hurts the rich more than the poor in 2022.

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The fact-checking wing of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), the Indian government’s nodal media agency, declared that the statement was “fake”. PIB tweeted that the Finance Ministry hasn’t given any such statement. (Archive link)

A Tweet with the picture of Union Finance Minister @nsitharaman is being circulated claiming that the Finance Ministry has stated – “Inflation will affect the rich more than the poor in 2022”

#PIBFactCheck:

▶️ The Claim is #Fake

▶️ @FinMinIndia has not given such statement pic.twitter.com/DpwEWr7DJt

— PIB Fact Check (@PIBFactCheck) May 15, 2022

Finance Ministry’s Twitter handle retweeted PIB’s fact-check. (Archive link)

Fact-check

Alt News performed keyword searches on Twitter and found a tweet posted by Moneycontrol dated May 12. It states that the Finance Ministry wrote in the April edition of the Economic Review Report that the poor have suffered less due to rising prices in FY 2022 than the rich (archive link). The tweet also contained a link to an article.

Writing in the monthly economic review report for April, the finance ministry’s officials said the poor were hurt less by higher #prices in FY22 as compared to the rich.

Here’s how👇https://t.co/ZI6B7J3HUD

By @SiddharthUbiWan | #Economy #FinanceMinistry

— Moneycontrol (@moneycontrolcom) May 12, 2022

The headline of the article reads, “Inflation hurt rich more than poor in FY22, says Finance Ministry”. Its archived version can be accessed here.

The Economic Report for April 2022 accessible on the Finance Ministry’s website states verbatim, “Evidence on consumption patterns further suggests that inflation in India has a lesser impact on low-income strata than on high-income groups.” This can be read on the third page of the report.

Livemint and Deccan Herald also published articles quoting the Economic Review Report based on the Moneycontrol article. However, it must be noted that the outlet has since replaced the article. The earlier link redirects readers to a new article.

To sum it up, the Department of Economic Affairs under the Ministry of Finance stated in a report that inflation had a lower impact on people with lower incomes than those with higher incomes. The fact-checking wing of the Press Information Bureau, the Indian government’s nodal media agency, falsely declared the statement “fake”.