MillenniumPost
Bengal

Steepest contraction in India's GDP: Amit Mitra says Centre 'rudderless'

Kolkata: Stating that the Centre is "rudderless and clueless" as the country's GDP shrunk the most in the world, state Finance minister Amit Mitra on Monday attacked the Modi government for spending only an additional Rs 1 lakh crore in April-July this year compared to that of 2019-20.

This comes despite their claims of Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus in the wake of Covid, which was earlier termed by Mitra as nothing but "a complete myth".

India has witnessed the steepest contraction in the country's economy as the GDP slumped by 23.9 percent in the April-June quarter of 2020-21 financial year.

Though the Trinamool Congress earlier on Thursday had slammed the Centre for the same, Mitra on Monday came down heavily on the Modi government for the first time. He tweeted: "Centre rudderless and clueless. Why did India's GDP shrink the most in the world? The Government of India spent ONLY 1 lakh crores more in April-July 2020, compared to 2019-20, while headlines scream 20 lakh crore stimulus! Negligible additional stimulus meant 11 lakh cr of GDP lost forever. 24 percent shrink."

In this connection, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra also tweeted stating "Biggest Ever Fiscal Stimulus Package (Not) of Rs 20 lakh crore led to Worst Ever GDP contraction of -23.9% Impossible is nothing for Hon'ble FM!"

In May, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had also termed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement of the stimulus package in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic as "a big zero" as out of Rs 20 lakh crore stimulus, Rs 10 lakh crore and a Rs 1.7 lakh crore package were announced earlier. Another Rs 8 lakh crore was already given as liquidity and Rs 10,000 crore was of 'Jan Dhan Yojana'.

In a similar connection, the Bengal government had repeatedly demanded direct transfer of financial benefit for at least three months to those in distress due to the nationwide lockdown mainly belonging to the unorganised sectors. Mitra had said a proper stimulus with 50 percent cash component was needed to tackle the economic fallout of Covid.

Next Story
Share it