The Congress on Tuesday, 24 October termed as “too little, too late” the government’s move to recapitalise public sector banks with Rs 2.11 lakh crore and said that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s “shoddy” attempt to defend the government's performance on the economy front had failed to impress either the people or the industry.
Reacting to the government's announcements to boost infrastructure, growth and employment, Congress Communications Incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala said the decisions were a “visionless damp squib”.
He said the economic growth projected by the government was only on paper.
Referring to Jaitley’s assertion about macro-economic fundamentals of the economy being very strong, Surjewala said “mindless and unsound decisions like demonetisation and the poor implementation of GST has hurt the core fundamentals.”
Surjewala said that bank recapitalisation has neither a roadmap nor a timeframe.
The Congress leader said the non-performing assets of 39 banks were at an all time high of Rs 8.35 Lakh crore with the government “failing completely to renegotiate the loans, recover public money and address core fundamentals of fiscal discipline”.
“Borrowing money (Rs 1.35 lakh crore bonds + part of Rs 76,000 crore from the market) to recapitalise banks would obviously mean breaching the fiscal deficit target. This is a desperate move by a Finance Minister groping in the dark as demonetisation and GST failed to bring in the promised Rs 4/5 lakh crore,” he said.
Surjewala said the Minister had “no clue” how and when the bonds will be issued and when will the money reach the banks.
Surjewala said the BJP-led government has already waived loans of wilful defaulters worth Rs 1,88,287 crores in the last three years.
Referring to Bharatmala, the ambitious road construction project approved by the cabinet on Tuesday, Surjewala said the slated investment of Rs 5.35 lakh crore is completely debt driven with people having to share the burden.
(Breathe In, Breathe Out: Are you finding it tough to breathe polluted air? Join hands with FIT to find #PollutionKaSolution. Send in your suggestions to fit@thequint.com or WhatsApp @ +919999008335)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)