The Congress on Thursday accused Finance Minister Arun Jaitley of “fooling” people with his statement that no loans of big defaulters have been waived and claimed the Government had written off Rs 1.88 lakh crore debt of those who had wilfully defaulted.
At the same time party welcomed the rise in India’s GDP growth rate but on a cautious note saying it is a pause in the declining trend and one should wait for the next three-four quarters before drawing a definite conclusion.
Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi alleged that the government “helped crony friends” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who are “strong”, while the common people feel “helpless”. “Modi Government has continuously and constantly benefited a select group of cronies by waiving their loans, even though the NPAs in the banks are piling up, thus putting the bank deposits and the state’s exchequer at risk,” he said.
Singhvi termed Jaitley’s claim of “no waiving of loans of big defaulters” as untrue and asserted that the evidence in public domain is contrary to his claims.
He said in the past three years, the BJP government has already waived loans of wilful defaulters worth Rs 1,88,287 crore. Citing figures, he said, Rs 49,018 crore was waived in 2014-15, Rs 57,586 crore in 2015-16 and another Rs 81,683 crore in 2016-17, totalling Rs 1.88 lakh crore. “Then why is Shri Jaitley fooling the intelligence of Rs 125 crore Indians by saying that there is no loan waiverIJ,” he asked.
Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram appreciated the rise in GDP rate but warned and said to wait few more quarters. “Happy that the July-Sep quarter has registered a growth rate of 6.3%. This a pause in the declining trend of the last five quarters. But we cannot say now whether this will mark an upward trend in the growth rate. We should wait for the growth rates over the next 3-4 quarters before we can reach a definite conclusion,” Chidambaram said in a series of tweets.
Chidambaram also said that “6.3 per cent is far below the promise of the Modi Government and far below the potential of a well-managed
Indian economy”. The former finance minister said this after India reported a 6.3 per cent GDP growth rate in the July-September quarter of the current fiscal.