NEW DELHI: The Congress on Saturday accused the government of "ruining" the economy by its "monumental mismanagement" and advised the Centre to immediately give money in the hands of the poor by making rural job scheme MGNREGA "need based".
Congress' senior spokesperson Anand Sharma also demanded that the government "honestly" release the numbers of jobs lost and not "mislead" the people.
The Congress' attack on the government over the state of economy came a day after official data released showed that India's economic growth slowed to 4.7 per cent in October-December 2019.
Sharma said that under the rural job scheme Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) the government should give employment for 150 days a year at a daily wage of Rs 500 to revive rural demand and economy.
"We remain seriously concerned about the continuing job losses which will eventually have an adverse impact on social stability and peace in the country with a large number of unemployed youths in the country having no hope and in despair," he said.
"This government is ruining the economy by its monumental mismanagement and it continues to remain in denial," he said at a press conference.
NSO data shows that the GDP for the third quarter is at 4.7 per cent, which is the lowest of the last seven years, Sharma said. Noting that this is the seventh consecutive quarter when the GDP has fallen, Sharma said it is a matter of "grave concern" that the nominal GDP of India continues to be in single digit.
If 7.7 per cent is the nominal GDP which includes the inflation then where is growth, he said.
"If you take out the expenditure on defence, public administration and other services of the government, the actual GDP growth of third quarter is 3.7 per cent whereas the third quarter historically shows the strongest growth because it is after the kharif crop so there is a growth in agriculture then it is factored in the gross value addition and in the nominal GDP and the real GDP," Sharma said.
He said the third quarter numbers are generally good because it is the festive season when people go for purchases and consumption shows a spike.
"But that has not happened so even in the festive season... people have not spent because people have no money," Sharma added.
There is 9.2 per cent fall in investments and gross fixed capital formation which actually is the only measure of the economy growing and tangible investments growing for creation of new assets, new factories and job creation that remains in the negative, he said.
"We are also staring at a huge fiscal deficit, unmanageable revenue deficit. Revenue receipts are very low both when we look at the GST numbers and also the income tax.
"So direct and indirect taxes receipts are very low and the government's budgetary projections are based on revenue receipts of Rs 26 lakh crore whereas up to December the total revenue receipts have been Rs 11 lakh crore," Sharma said.
"So whether in the fourth quarter the government can get Rs 15 lakh crore we have serious doubts because GST will come when factories are producing and selling, other taxes will come when people have the money," he said.
This government has given a budget which is the most pedestrian budget, Sharma said.
"It does not even have platitudes, it has seen a sharp reduction in the allocation for those schemes which are meant for the poor, whether the Mid Day Meal scheme or MGNREGA there is no stimulus and the government is boastful about giving or bringing down the corporate tax giving relief to the rich, that money has not come back in the economy," he said.
The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth was registered at 5.6 per cent in the corresponding quarter of 2018-19, as per the data released by the National Statistical Office (NSO).
