Shimla: Himachal Pradesh Congress today raised concern over the economic slowdown in the country. A delegation led by party in-charge Rajni Patil called on Governor Bandaru Dattatraya at Raj Bhawan and presented a memorandum to the President of India through him.
Congress party, through its memorandum, raises concern over the constant decline in the growth rate. The memorandum read that the India’s GDP growth has touched 5 percent to a six-year low in the April-June quarter this year.
Party claimed that all sectors including auto, manufacturing, agriculture, real estate have slumped badly, and official data released by the National Statistics Office (NSO) confirm the same.
Indian investors have also become wary of the slowing economic growth as major companies, especially from the auto sector, have been posting huge dips in profit and even losses in many cases. All major Indian companies–from biscuit to vehicle manufacturers–have seen their fortunes dip over the last few quarters, forcing them to eventually call out to the government for support, the Congress memorandum further read.
Due to bad health of the economy, many companies have already started to cut their workforces. Memorandum read
“The autos sector alone has laid off about 350,000 workers since April and even companies like cookie maker Parle have warned they may have to lay off up to 10,000 workers, due to weakening demand. The current economic crisis is a man-made disaster, with demonetisation, hasty implementation of the GST, wrong policies and very often policy rollbacks, which caused the disastrous economic crisis that India is facing today.”
Taking experts from the financial research firm India Ratings and Research, which has stated that the government has “little room” to provide a significant stimulus to the slowing economy. And country is currently facing a mix of cyclical and structural slowdown. While higher investments can heal the ailing economy, the government practically has no room to push investments.
Congress also highlighted the plight of Indian currency, which party claimed has become one of the worst-performing Asian currencies after depreciating 3.65 per cent against the dollar in August. It could become much worse if healing measures are not introduced quickly, party raises concern.
Congress claimed that the under 10 years of the UPA government, the economy has progressed on an average of 6.7%. However, in past six quarters, economy has witnessed sharp decline. Blaming BJP led Union Government for diverting attention from its failed policies including demonetisation and flawed GST implementation, Congress asked BJP for acknowledging its failure and work towards fixing the economy.
