Don’t do something to artificially boost growth: Congress on ‘data revamp’ reports

The Congress on Sunday expressed apprehension over the government's reported bid to revamp official statistics to account for the unorganised sector, saying no attempt should be made to "artificially boost" the rate of growth.

The government has suddenly expressed alarm and a "revamp of official statistics" is being proposed because it believes unorganised sector has not been looked at, Congress spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said at a press conference.

"We have no problem if it is a constructive exercise... Please don't do something where you artificially boost your official 4.9 per cent rate of growth which your own CEA (Arvind Subramanian) believes is 2-2.5 per cent less than stated," he said.

"This government is desperate to find quick-fix solutions, jumla solutions, misleading solutions, to find sleight of hand solutions, to avoid substance, to avoid the real meat of the matter, and give a misleading new issue to digress and divert attention," Singhvi alleged.

He also hit out at the government over the National Crime Records Bureau data that an average 35 unemployed and 36 self-employed people ended their lives every day in 2018, with the two categories together accounting for 26,085 suicide deaths during the year.