New Delhi: The Congress on Saturday accused the Narendra Modi government of economic mismanagement saying the current debt burden had reached a whopping Rs 155 lakh crore and demanded a white paper on the economy.
“The fourteen prime ministers before Mr Modi accumulated a total debt of around Rs 45 lakh crores. But over the past nine years, PM Modi took a debt of Rs 100 lakh crores. Under this government, the country’s debt burden increased from Rs 55 lakh crores in 2014 to Rs 155 lakh crores. This shows economic mismanagement which is not only hurting the economy but also making the poor and the middle class suffer from high prices of essential items. We demand the government to come out with a white paper on the economy,” Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said.
“The economy cannot be managed through headline management and through WhatsApp forwards. You need sound economic managers to do the job. As a result of the high debt burden, every Indian has a debt of Rs 1.20 lakh while the rich are benefitting from it,” she said. The Congress leader cited a CAG report of 2020 saying it had expressed concern about the negative tax stability of the Indian economy and said that the tax to GDP ratio had reached 52 percent.
“That ratio is now at a significantly high 84 percent. The sad part is that the poor and the middle class are suffering from this economic mismanagement but the rich are becoming richer,” said Shrinate. Citing data to support her charge, the Congress leader pointed out that the bottom 50 percent of the population, which controls only 3 percent of the country’s wealth, was paying 64 percent of the GST, the 10 percent rich, which had control over 80 percent of the wealth, were paying just 3 percent GST.
“This is an indicator of growing economic disparity in the country. The Modi government had promised ‘achche din’ for all the people. But whose ‘achche din’ have come actually. The poor and the middle class are burdened with high taxes, high fuel prices and high prices of commodities but the rich are enjoying themselves,” said Shrinate.
“India is today the country with the highest prices of LPG and the third highest prices of petrol. When compared, the other developing economies have a debt burden of only 64 percent,” she said. According to the Congress leader, the high debt burden meant that the government had to repay interest worth Rs 11 lakh crore per year, which could have been used to provide relief to the people in many ways.
“Today 23 crore people are below the poverty line and the incomes of 83 percent people have been reduced. Around 11,000 small and medium enterprises have shut but the number of millionaires which was 102 in 2020 increased to 166 in 2022,” Shrinate said.
“In turn, the government has imposed GST on essential food items like wheat flour, curd, medicines, education. As a result, consumption in the economy dropped from 61 percent of GDP to 60 percent over the past one year,” she said. “When PM Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat he used to target the then central government over the economy. But now there are no clarifications. Therefore we demand a white paper,” she added.
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