Former finance minister P Chidambaram on Monday criticised the ruling government’s inefficiency in creating jobs while failing miserably in fiscal consolidation.
Address a session on ‘India’s Fiscal Reforms ~ Rhetoric and Realities,’ organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce, the former finance minister said: “Fiscal stability is the base for the construction of economic policies. It should be sound and strong. However, it is observed that the present government has failed the people of this country on test of fiscal.
The BJP government is borrowing money from revenue expenditure rather than borrowing from capital expenditure to fill up fiscal deficits. I must point out that in contrast to the UPA government which had brought down fiscal deficit to 1.4 per cent from 5.9 per cent, the present regime has been able to bring it down to mere 3 per cent from 4.5 per cent.”
Speaking on financial reforms, the former minister said: “BJP had promised several reforms but it has only remained restricted to rhetorics. During the time of Manmohan Singh, the present government had then put forward fierce opposition to reforms, including the Goods and Services Tax(GST) till 2014-15, and even accused us of policy paralysis. Most of the financial reforms now brought by the BJP government has turned into a nightmare for the citizens of this country.
“As far as the GST is concerned, the network still remains wobbly while people are complaining about having to file three tax returns in a month and 37 in a year. Adding to this, the rates of high value items have also been brought down while custom duties are falling drastically.”
Criticising the BJP government’s National Health Protection scheme, Mr Chidambaram poined out “While the government is beating its trumpet about the scheme which is supposedly going to cover around 50 crore people, no money has been alloted for the purpose till date. In fact, a similar scheme was announced in 2016-17 which was then called ‘National Health Insurance Scheme and had planned to cover six crore families and 30 crore people up to Rs 1 lakh.
“However, it fell flat as no allocation of funds were made. And this time they talk of covering 10 crore families and 50 crore people up to to Rs 10 lakh. Its a complete an eyewash and even if they implement it, having access to it might become impossible.”
He added that the present government has resorted to the most cruelest forms of taxation by increasing prices of oil and fuel in a bid to raise revenues.
“Three major challenges that India now faces are-educational health, agriculture and employment. There are around one lakh schools that are being run by a single teacher while 83 per cent students don’t step into colleges and other drop out in either the eighth or tenth standard.
Of every two children are anaemic due to lack of nutrition while hindering their mental and physical growth. No implementation of National Food Safety Act has been done. Real agricultural output and income has remained stagnant despite 55 percent of India depends on farming for income.
“The government promised two crore jobs but barely created even one lakh. Jobs in the micro small and medium enterprises (MSME) have been destroyed post demonetisation. However, the ruling government is more interested in passing off “frying pakodas” as real jobs.
We need to bring immense pressure on the government for the changes that need to be made for the betterment of our country,” said Mr Chidambaram.
While launching his book ~ Speaking truth to power ~ he stated that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act should be amended if not repealed. He said paramilitary force in J&K was brought down by 10,000 troops in the time he was the home minister.