Congress slams Modi govt on economy, says move beyond ‘piecemeal approach’

The Congress on Tuesday attacked the Modi government over the state of the economy, saying it must acknowledge the "acute slowdown" and move beyond piecemeal approach to put the "economic mess" in order.

The opposition party's sharp attack on the government came over a media report, which cited RBI data, to claim that the overall financial flows to the commercial sector have declined sharply, by around 88 per cent.

Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the RBI report cited points to an "acute economic slowdown".

Between April 2019 and September 2019, credit has collapsed, which means economic activity has stalled, she said.

"We would want the data to be mulled upon. We need to understand it. In the last one year, fund flow to the commercial sector is down by 88 per cent, according to a new RBI data. Last year, this figure was at Rs. 7.36 lakh crore now it is around Rs. 91,000 crore," Shrinate said.

"This is happening despite RBI cut repo rates. Repo rate is down by 1.35 per cent from January to now. Despite that people are not taking credit because they're not convinced that they can do economic activity with this credit because people are insecure about their jobs," she said.

The piecemeal approach continues but the government does not have a comprehensive solution to put the economic mess in order, she said.

The fault lines are very vivid in the Indian economy but there doesn't seem to be a comprehensive approach to resolving it, Shrinate said.

"The RBI conducted a consumer confidence survey, it is at a 6-year low in September. People's faith in the Indian economy plummeted to a 6-year low in the month of September and over 50 per cent of the people are convinced that jobs will no longer be created," she said.

"You need to acknowledge the problem, you need to accept that we are in an acute slowdown and then you need to have a comprehensive solution, you need to have bold reforms, you need to justify your political mandate," Shrinate said.

The Congress spokesperson also raised questions over the growth rate of 5 per cent, saying the question is "how are we growing without this credit".