Mumbai:
Comparing the Indian economy to a car whose four tyres are private investment, private consumption,exports and government expenditure; the former finance minister P Chidambaram said that its three tyres are already punctured.He was speaking in Thane at an event organized by the Maharashtra Congress Unit where he attacked the Narendra Modi led government over rising fuel prices and other issues.
“Private investment, private consumption, exports and government expenditures are four growth engines of an economy. It’s like four tyres of a car. If one or two tyres are punctured, it will slow down but in our case, three tyres are punctured,” said the senior Congress leader.
He said that the government is spending only in healthcare and some other amenities and to keep this expenditure going on, the government has continued taxing petrol, diesel and LPG.
He also criticised the government for introducing a ‘five-slab’ Goods and Service Tax.
“Post-demonstration this government has introduced GST with five tax slabs with a cess over it. In other countries, GST is just one tax system but we can have two types of taxation in India. Still, having five slabs is not what we had imagined about GST,” he said.
He mocked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comment that selling ‘pakodas’ is also a form of employment. He also criticised the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana under which loans of up to Rs 10 lakh are provided to non-corporate, non-farm small/micro enterprises.
“The average amount of disbursed Mudra loan is Rs 43,000 per person. No major investment can be done with such low amount, except one wants to run a Pakoda stall,” Mr Chidambaram said.
He said that the government is falling short on exports too as compared to the UPA regime.
“Industrial utilisation is mere 60 per cent in the country. The export of merchandise, during the UPA was USD 315 billion, which was USD 303 billion last year. Before that, it was not even USD 300 billion. This shows we are not earning from exports too,” the former finance minister said.
He said that under the current government there is a clear message given to certain communities that they are second rank citizens of this country.
He said that there is a lot of social unrest over food habits, social behaviour and active anti-Romeo squads in the country.
(PHOTO INPUT :- TWITTER/P.CHIDAMBARAM)