In the question given below, there are 2 statements marked as Assertion (A) and Reason (R). Choose the correct alternative from the following options.

Assertion (A)- The government uses "Monthly Per Capita Expenditure" (MPCE) as a proxy for the income of households to identify the poor but the mechanism does not satisfactorily identifies the poor households in our country.

Reason (R)- Economists state that a major problem with the mechanism of "Monthly Per Capita Expenditure" is that it groups all the rich together and does not differentiate between the very rich and the moderately rich.

(A) is true but (R) is false.

The government uses Monthly Per Capita Expenditure (MPCE) as a proxy for the income of households to identify the poor, but do you think this mechanism satisfactorily identifies the poor households in our country? Economists state that a major problem with this mechanism is that it groups all the poor together and does not differentiate between the very poor and the other poor Also this mechanism takes into account expenditure on food and a few select items as proxy for income, economists question its basis. This mechanism is helpful in identifying the poor as a group to be taken care of by the government, but it would be difficult to identify who among the poor need help the most.