New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday targeted the Centre over the state of economy and said that it needs to spend more and give additional money to the poor to restart the economy through consumption.
Further slamming the Centre over the Reserve Bank of India’s latest warning on economic contraction amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, Rahul Gandhi said that “distractions through media will not help the poor”.
“RBI has now confirmed what I have been warning for months,” the Wayanad MP tweeted this morning along with a news report.
In its annual report for 2019-’20 published on Tuesday, the central bank said the pandemic could cause a structural downshift in the potential output of the Indian economy. The report said the contraction in the economy could continue into the second quarter of 2020-’21, i.e. July-September mainly because of the localised lockdowns that were reimposed to contain the infection, reported a leading website.
The Congress leader also provided few suggestions to the government which includes “Government needs to: Spend more, not lend more. Give money to the poor, not tax cuts to industrialists. Restart economy by consumption.”
RBI has now confirmed what I have been warning for months.
Govt needs to:
Spend more, not lend more.
Give money to the poor, not tax cuts to industrialists.
Restart economy by consumption.Distractions through media won’t help the poor or make the economic disaster disappear. pic.twitter.com/OTDHPNvnbx
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) August 26, 2020
“Distractions through media won’t help the poor or make the economic disaster disappear,” he added.
RBI called for wide-ranging reforms to regain losses post Covid-19
Declining capacity utilisation, weakening of consumption demand and overhang of stressed balance sheets are restraining new investments, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Tuesday while calling for wide-ranging reforms to regain losses due to COVID-19 crisis and return to the path of sustainable economic growth.
The corporate tax cut of September 2019 has been utilised in debt servicing, a build-up of cash balances and other current assets rather than restarting the capital expenditure cycle, it had said.
“These underlying developments suggest that the appetite for investment is anaemic and in need of more reforms,” had said the central bank in its 2019-20 annual report.
The RBI said that COVID-19 crisis can be converted into an opportunity by using an online provision of education and training to implement reforms in the social infrastructure by skill development and reskilling so as to prepare a labour force equipped to keep pace with a big thrust on infrastructure.
