Congress Asks Govt to Read Four Lessons from Economic Survey

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Congress released Delhi manifesto Image credit INC India

Congress released Delhi manifesto Image credit INC India

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MGNREGA Now Lifeline for Rural Poor: Congress

By Raisina Correspondent

New Delhi, January 31: The Congress has asked the government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to read four messages from the Economic Survey 2024-25 carefully. The Congress warned that the state of the economy document is pointing to bigger risks.

“The Economic Survey of the Ministry of Finance is often a wish list of desired policies and a warning about undesirable ones. The latest Economic Survey is no different, and contains much for the government to ponder,” said Jairam Ramesh, the Communication department chief of the Congress.

He also stated that the Economy Survey points out that “the MGNREGA has been a lifeline for the rural poor, and has today evolved into a ‘durable rural asset creation programme’ for sustainable livelihood diversification”.

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“In an era of accelerated climate change, it has helped boost rural ecological health through improvement of soil quality and improved water management,” said Ramesh, who was Union Minister for Rural development in the second term of the UPA government at the Centre.

He also stated that “the Prime Minister must therefore explain why he is throttling MGNREGA by reducing allocations, excluding 27% of workers from getting paid by foisting an Aadhaar-based Payment System on them, and keeping wages low”.

“Second, it points out that there are 11.5 crore unique investors with demat accounts in Indian financial markets. It says that higher investor participation has engendered a self-reinforcing cycle of strong market returns, bringing in even more investors,” added Ramesh.

The Congress leader asked, “why then is the government overseeing the corruption and weakening of a valuable national asset like SEBI, whose integrity is central to the welfare of these investors”.

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The Congress leader spotlighted the Economic Survey, saying: “It is reasonable to expect that financial regulators hold themselves to the same standards that they expect of regulated entities.”

“Third, despite thousands of crores spent on schemes like PLI, imports from China continue unabated, with the $102 billion record of 2023-24 likely to be broken in 2024-25,” added Ramesh.

He warned that “this (trade deficit with China) is unlikely to change in the near future”. He quoted the Economic Survey, noting that the import intensity of E-Vehicle production, especially from countries with whom India has persistent and large trade deficits, is very high.

“But protection cannot be imposed only to help large monopolies evade competition,” added Ramesh. “In the most successful export stories, industrial policy goals were achieved not by protection alone but by policies which ensured that the protected industries performed in response to the protection afforded,” added the Congress leader.

He stated that “this means using protection to make companies — especially MSMEs — more competitive and not allowing large monopolies to dominate sector after sector for political reasons”.

“Finally, the Economic Survey calls for Ease of Doing Business 2.0. But it is silent on a whole new GST 2.0 and an end to the tax terrorism unleashed in the past decade,” added Ramesh.

The Congress leader also questioned lack of space in the document on Ease of Living 1.0 to ensure that the public health crisis caused by growing pollution and chemical contamination begins to be dealt with seriously.

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