New Delhi: The political slugfest over the economic slowdown escalated on Thursday, with finance minister Arun Jaitley hitting back at BJP dissident Yashwant Sinha as a “job applicant at 80”.
A day after Sinha accused him of making a mess of the economy, Jaitley defended his track record and repeatedly suggested that NDA was ta- Sinha: The GROWTH rate has been declining until it reached a 3-year low of 5.7% Jaitley: Growth rates are related to several factors... from 2003 to 2008, we grew with the global trend... We became the fastest growing major economy for the first 3 years (of Modi govt) Sinha: DEMONETISATION added fuel to the fire (of deceleration) Jaitley: Demonetisation had some impact in the short term but it’s positive in the medium and long term. The 15.7% increase in direct taxes is because the personal income tax base is expanding Sinha: Legacy problems (like BANK NPAs) have... become worse Jaitley: During 1998-2002 (when Sinha was FM), NPAs were a staggering 14-15%... I can conveniently forget (that).. I can conveniently forget the $4 billion (forex) reserves left in 1991 king decisive steps, in contrast to UPA’s “policy paralysis”.
He also pointed out Sinha was the FM when India was staring at default in loan re- payment with foreign exchange reserves of less than $4 billion in 1991. Similarly, Sinha was finance minister in the Vajpayee government Central
public sector enterprises (CPSEs) and agencies such as the National Highways Authority of India have decided to step up their capital expenditure by Rs 25,000 crore during the current financial year. This should help the government increase spending to boost economic activity. Of this, around Rs 15,000 crore may be spent on building highways.
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when non-performing assets of banks were at 14-15% of their loans.
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