NYAY will remonetise economy: PC
New Delhi: Senior Congress leader and former Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday alleged that the incumbent government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is misleading the people with hollow claims as the economy is treading a weak path.
Chidambaram further said that the next government has enough work to do so as to repair the damage done by the BJP as several indicators show that the economy is facing a slowdown. While praising the NYAY scheme, he said, "The scheme will help in the remonetisation of the economy."
The people have begun to raise their voices as the elections near an end, he added. The report by the economic division of the Finance Ministry for March is an indictment of the state of the economy, he noted. Taking the stock of a media report on the CSO' data and GDP series, Chidambaram said that it appears the MCA-21 data, which has not been made public, is faulty as 35 per cent of companies in the data does not exist.
There is not even a single parameter which shows the economy is in good shape, he added. According to the March 2019 report, the GDP growth fell from 8.2 per cent to 7 per cent in the last 3 years. The gross fiscal deficit and capital expenditure remain flat and inflation rose from 3.1 per cent to 4.2 per cent, the former finance minister said.
The private expenditure, government expenditure and fixed investment rates have also fallen in the last five years, Chidambaram said while dubbing Modi as naukri vinash Prime minister.
"The tughlaqi farmans of demonetisation and GST resulted in the country losing over 1.1 crore jobs in 2018 alone. The economy has entered a disastrous phase of a slowdown as reflected by a consistent fall in the quarterly growth of real GDP. A massive shortfall of Rs 1.6 lakh crore in the tax revenues would
effectively increase the actual fiscal deficit to 3.9 per cent," he said.
In a reply to a question on Hindutva narrative set by PM Modi, Chidambaram said, "However much the prime minister tries to hijack the narrative, ultimately we believe that the people of India will vote on the state of the economy."
