New Delhi: The Congress slammed the BJP-led Centre on Friday after the latest Economic Survey was tabled in Parliament, saying it calls for Ease of Doing Business 2.0 but is silent on a whole new GST 2.0 and an end to the “tax terrorism” unleashed over the last 10 years.
Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the Economic Survey has little to say about an Ease of Living 1.0 to ensure that the public-health crisis caused by growing pollution and chemical contamination begins to be dealt with seriously.
“The Economic Survey of the Ministry of Finance is often a wish list of desired policies and a warning about undesirable ones. The latest Economic Survey is no different, and contains much for the government to ponder,” Ramesh said on X.
He said the survey points out that the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has been a lifeline for the rural poor and has evolved into a “durable rural asset creation programme” for sustainable livelihood diversification.
In an era of accelerated climate change, it has helped boost rural ecological health through improvement of soil quality and improved water management, Ramesh noted.
“The Prime Minister must therefore explain why he is throttling MGNREGA by reducing allocations, excluding 27 per cent of workers from getting paid by foisting an Aadhaar-based payment system on them, and keeping wages low,” Ramesh said.
The survey also points out that there are 11.5 crore unique investors with demat accounts in Indian financial markets and says that “higher investor participation has engendered a self-reinforcing cycle of strong market returns, bringing in even more investors”, he noted.
“Why then is the government overseeing the corruption and weakening of a valuable national asset like SEBI, whose integrity is central to the welfare of these investors? As the Economic Survey itself says ‘It is reasonable to expect that financial regulators hold themselves to the same standards that they expect of regulated entities’,” the Congress leader said.
Despite thousands of crores spent on schemes like PLI, imports from China continue unabated, with the USD 102 billion record of 2023-24 likely to be broken in 2024-25, he pointed out.
“This is unlikely to change in the near future, as the Economic Survey says: ‘the import intensity of E-Vehicle production — especially from countries with whom India has persistent and large trade deficits — is very high’,” Ramesh said.
But protection cannot be imposed only to help large monopolies evade competition, he added.
“In the most successful export stories, ‘industrial policy goals were achieved not by protection alone but by policies which ensured that the protected industries performed in response to the protection afforded’. This means using protection to make companies — especially MSMEs — more competitive and not allowing large monopolies to dominate sector after sector for political reasons,” Ramesh said.
“Finally, the Economic Survey calls for Ease of Doing Business 2.0. But it is silent on a whole new GST 2.0 and an end to the tax terrorism unleashed in the past decade,” he said.
“And while we are on the ease subject, it has little to say about an Ease of Living 1.0 to ensure that the public health crisis caused by growing pollution and chemical contamination begins to be dealt with seriously,” he further said.
