The Congress on Thursday accused the Central government of working for corporates and mismanaging the economy and asked how much black money had been unearthed in the past over three years.
Participating in a discussion on supplementary demands for grants (second batch) for 2017-18 in the Lok Sabha, Congress leader M. Veerappa Moily said that India was missing out on a global revival in economic growth.
“The number of stalled projects have increased for the fourth straight quarter. The target on (reducing) fiscal deficit may not be met,” he said.
Referring to a report which said that India’s top one per cent earners received 22 per cent of the national income in 2014, Moily said “inequality has increased”.
He said that labour participation percentage has come down steeply and such figures raise doubts if India can be considered a developing country.
“That is why you are accused of being for corporates only,” he said.
Moily said perhaps the Congress should have kept its description of the Goods and Services Tax as “Gabbar Singh Tax” for the later part of the Gujarat election campaign as it would have prevented the Bharatiya Janata Party from making amendments and passing on concessions.
“The Gujarat election became a blessing in disguise for GST,” he said.
On the government’s claims of curbing black money, Moily asked how much illegal money had been recovered by the National Democratic Alliance government during its rule.