A day before the last phase of Gujarat Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a scathing attack on the Congress, listing a series of scams under the UPA regime. Modi accused the Congress-led regime of arm-twisting banks to give loans worth thousands of crore to select industrialists and termed it as the biggest of all scams.
“This (bank loans) was UPA Government’s biggest scam, bigger than Commonwealth Games, 2G (telecom spectrum allocation) and coal block allocation scams. This was kind of loot,” Modi said while addressing the AGM of FICCI.
Slamming the “economists” in the UPA for handing him a “liability” of non-performing assets (NPAs) or bad loans, Modi said, “This Government is framing policies keeping the needs of the youth in mind. In contrast, the previous Government gave thousands of crores to select big industrialist by putting pressure on banks.”
Modi also tried to show mirror to the FICCI saying it carried no study to assess how the plight of banking sector worsened due to policies of the earlier Government.
“Those in the Government, banks, industry and markets knew that a wrong was being committed,” he said. “This was UPA Government’s biggest scam, bigger than Commonwealth Games, 2G (telecom spectrum allocation) and coal block allocation scams. This was kind of loot of public money by those sitting in the Government by using industrialists.”
Modi said his Government has taken steps to strengthen the banking sector including by providing fresh capital so that the interest of customers and the country is protected. He also questioned as to why the UPA Government did not think of bringing a legislation like the Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 (RERA) to protect the interests of homebuyers and to enhance transparency in the real estate sector.
listing out his Government’s pro-poor policies, Modi said free cooking gas connections have been given to over 3 crore women; 30 crore bank accounts have been opened as part of financial inclusion; over Rs 4 lakh crore guarantee-less loans have been given to about 9.75 lakh youth for business; 5 crore toilets built and affordable housing for rural poor launched.
In the last three years, 87 reforms in 21 sectors like defence, construction, financial services and food processing have been undertaken to overhaul the economy, he said, adding, “ We are building a system that is not just transparent but also sensitive and understands people’s needs.”
Modi said his Government is formulating policies keeping in mind the need of businesses, abolishing archaic and obsolete laws. Industry, he said, had been long demanding Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the BJP-led Government implemented it and introduced measures like anti-profiteering to see that businesses pass on the benefit of lower taxes to the people.
As the Government makes efforts to ensure maximum businesses register for GST, he said the more formal the system becomes the more it will benefit the poor. “It will enable easier availability of credit from the banks, and reduce cost of logistics, thereby enhancing competitiveness of businesses.”
As a result of these measures, India has climbed from 142nd position to 100 on the World Bank’s ‘Ease of Doing Business’ rankings. He also mentioned other indicators which point to the robust health of the economy. He said the steps taken by the Government are also playing a key role in job creation.