Congress blames PM Modi for India's rising debts

Hyderabad: The Congress party has blamed the wrong economic policies of Prime Minister Narender Modi which pushed India into huge debts during the last four-and-a-half years. 

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Treasurer Gudur Narayana Reddy, in a media statement on Thursday, said that India's debts increased from Rs. 54,90,763 crore till June 2014 to a whopping Rs. 82,03,253 crore as on September 2018. He said as per the 8th Edition of the Status Paper on Government Debt released recently, the total liabilities of the government have increased by 49%. He said under PM Modi regime borrowed Rs. 28,92,171 crore in the last four-and-a-half years or an average of Rs. 1707 crore every day since BJP came to power at the Centre. 

Gudur Narayana Reddy said that the Public Debt as on June 2014 was Rs. 48,27,486 crore. It included an external debt of Rs. 412,514 Cr and Internal Debt of Rs. 44,14,972 Cr. But under PM Modi's regime, the overall Public Debt rose to Rs. 73,22,311 crore which includes External Debt of Rs. 525,765 Cr and Internal Debt of Rs. 67,96,545 Cr. He said growth in internal debt by 54% and public debt by almost 52% was purely due to economic blunders, mismanagement of resources and wrong policies. 

The Congress leader pointed out that the previous UPA regime did not raise money using gold bonds. But the Narender Modi Government raised Rs. 9080.53 crore through Gold Bonds, including Gold Monetisation Scheme. 

Gudur Narayana Reddy also expressed concern over decline in Reserve Funds & Deposits which came down from Rs. 221,999.79 Cr in June 2014 to Rs. 214,616.96 Cr. Other liabilities too have increased to Rs. 880,941.97 Cr in September 2018 compared to Rs. 663,277.52 Cr in June 2014. 

He said these figures clearly show that the claims of economic growth being made by BJP Government at the Centre were hollow. "Several misadventures like demonitisation and a defective GST coupled with a non-serious approach to country's finances by Modi Government have pushed the entire country into huge debts and economic slowdown," he said. 

Gudur Narayana Reddy said while the average annual growth under Congress-led UPA regime from 2003-04 to 2013-14 was 8.1%, it was just 7.2% from 2014-15 to 2017-18. Similarly, as against 10.2% average Gross Fixed Capital Formation under UPA, it was only 6.4% under NDA regime. He said that the UPA regime had ensured a robust and growing economy, NDA regime, led by PM Modi, has caused huge damage to the economy. However, he said that the people of India would take a wise decision in next elections and bring back Congress party to power again.