Nirmala Sitharaman said, “Currently, retail inflation is 7 per cent.
New Delhi:
Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, while replying to the debate on price hike in Lok Sabha today, gave an account of all the parameters to assess the economy and said that there is no possibility of the country going into recession or stagnation. In the midst of their response, the Congress staged a walkout saying they were not satisfied with their response.
“The pandemic, the second wave of Covid, Omicron, Russia-Ukraine – we have kept inflation at or below 7 per cent. And it should be recognized,” Ms Sitharaman said.
“Currently, retail inflation is 7 per cent. During the UPA government from 2004 to 2014, inflation had gone into double digits. During that time, inflation was above 9 per cent for 22 consecutive months.
He said most of the inflation is in food and fuel. “Food inflation is coming down in the world and it will decrease in India too,” he said.
Announcing that India is still better off than other countries, Ms Sitharaman said the US GDP fell 0.7 per cent in the second quarter after declining 1.9 per cent in the first quarter.
“They called it an informal recession. There is no question of India going into recession. The Bloomberg survey of economists says there is a 0 percent chance of India slipping into recession,” she said.
Citing other parameters of the economy, he said, “NPAs (non-performing assets) of commercial banks are at a six-year low. GST collections have been above Rs 1.4 lakh crore for 5 consecutive months.”
The finance minister’s response came after 10 days of chaos in Parliament as the opposition demanded a discussion on the price hike. Treasury and opposition benches agreed to discuss the issue of price hike in the lower house after Parliament Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi moved a motion to revoke the suspension of four Congress Lok Sabha MPs.
About 20 members from all parties participated in the discussion. Even like-minded parties like Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal and YSR Congress urged the government to intervene to contain inflation.
Congress MP Manish Tewari started the discussion by accusing the BJP-led government of spoiling the economy through “demonetisation and the wrong way GST”. “Through the latest GST hike, the government has strengthened its budget but ruined the budget of 25 crore Indians,” he said.
BJP MP from Jharkhand Nishikant Dubey cited fact-checker Mohammad Zubair’s tweet on LPG prices to counter Mr Tiwari. “In 2013 the price of LPG was more than Rs 1,000… Now it is less,” he said.
BJD’s Pinaki Mishra highlighted that cash in circulation has doubled now compared to the pre-demonetisation period and asked the government to introspect on its policies.
Countering the Centre’s defence, Mr Mishra said, adding that the Center has collected Rs 27.27 lakh crore through fuel taxes because of fuel bonds bought by the Congress. “Every time they say that they are paying for the fuel bonds bought by the UPA… but, in reality, they have paid just Rs 93,600 crore… which is just 3.4 per cent.”
Trinamool Congress’s Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar while chewing on a raw brinjal said, “The price of LPG cylinder has gone up four times in the last few months… from Rs 600 to Rs 1,100 now… Does the government want us to eat raw vegetables? For?”