Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram attacks Modi govt over economy slowdown ahead of Budget

As the Indian economy marked its lowest slowdown in decades and growth slipped to 4.5% in the July-September quarter, former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ministers by posting a series of tweets speaking on the facts about the economy ahead of budget.

In one of the several messages he posted on Twitter, he stated, “Since the PM and his ministers seem cut off from reality, here are three things they can speak about in the DELHI elections:

1. CPI has increased from 2 per cent in Jan 2019 to 7.35 per cent in Dec 2019.

2. Tax revenues will fall short of budget estimates by Rs 2.5 lakh crore in 2019-20.

3. There will be sharp expenditure cuts in programmes meant for SC, ST, OBC, minorities and women & children.”

He also questioned the credibility of the ruling government by tweeting, “ People want to know why achhe din has not arrived after 6 years.”

He also pointed out the highest personal income tax rate during the Congress regime, “Remember there was a time when the highest personal income tax rate was brought down to 30% with no surcharge?”

Then, he talked about the growth rate under the ruling government ruing the fact that now it’s hard to put the economy back on the track of positive growth, “Sadly, under the BJP government there can be no return to those rates because the BJP has messed up the country’s finances.”

In another tweet, he suggested that cutting the income tax rates would be wrong, “if the FM cuts personal income tax rates (following the cut in the corporate tax rate), it would be wrong at this point of time and will not serve the purpose of reviving demand.”

“The correct tax to cut is GST, but the government has tied itself in knots that it cannot find a way to cut the GST rates.”

“The country’s finances are in such a mess that whatever government does now will have negative consequences.”