New Delhi, Feb 10, 2020 –
Launching a blistering attack on the Modi government over the state of the economy, senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram on Monday said the government had masked the current situation with numbers and it had no money to spend.
“You have run out of money. You have masked your situation with numbers. These numbers are not credible,” Chidambaram said initiating the discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the Union Budget.
The former Finance Minister said that despite the government vesting power in even lower-rung tax officers to issue notices there was massive shortfall across various tax heads such as corporate tax, personal income tax, customs and GST.
“You promised to collect net tax revenue of Rs 16.49 lakh crore (in the current fiscal). Upto December, you have collected only Rs 9 lakh crore and you have asked us to believe that at the end of the year you will collect Rs 15 lakh crore,” Chidambaram said.
He attacked the government for its poor show on expenditure in the current financial year. He said that the government had promised to spend Rs 27 lakh crore in FY20 but till December it could spend only Rs 11.78 lakh crore.
“You ask us to believe that at the end of the year you will spend Rs 27 lakh crore,” he said.
The senior Congress leader listed out various macro parameters where the economy had been slipping. He noted that for six successive quarters there had been negative growth in the GDP and the seventh quarter was not going to be any better. Further, the government had repeatedly said that there would be an uptick in the growth.
He compared the government’s assurance on economy with that of “an astrologer who tells his client that fortune would turn after certain planets move from one House to the other.”
He questioned the government’s ability to manage the economic crisis and noted that it cannot always blame the previous government for the abysmal performance. Chidambaram said that the country had faced economic headwinds in 1997, 2008 and 2013.
“There could be a bad situation but you should know how to manage it,” he said.
He stated that given the available numbers for revenue deficit and fiscal deficit for the FY20 the situation was worrying. Further, the projections given for the next financial year suggest that the situation would be even more worrying.
Chidambaram said that the overall credit growth was only 8 to 9 per cent and when it comes to industry and agriculture the rate is much lower.
He took on Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for not picking up ideas from the Economic Survey.
“Unfortunately, the Budget speech did not refer to Economic Survey. Not one idea was picked up or discussed,” he said.
Chidambaram again termed the two major steps of the government — demonetisation and GST — as monumental blunders. He said that GST was faulty and flawed in design, procedure and rates among others resulting in negative impact on trade and business.
He said that the Modi government had been in a state of denial and was not ready to accept that the state of the economy is extremely bad. (Agency)
