Responding to Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent statement to a news channel that stable governments can help the stock markets perform better, the Congress said there was no basis for the fear-mongering and that the party’s record in providing strong and inclusive economic growth spoke for itself.
Senior MP and party’s general secretary Jairam Ramesh said in a statement here on Sunday that it was a matter of record that economic growth and investment were much higher under the Manmohan Singh regime than the Narendra Modi government. “Private investment and the share of manufacturing as a percentage were much greater under Dr. Singh than in the past decade. Self-inflicted policy blunders such as demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax and an ill-planned lockdown played an important role. But equally important is the atmosphere of fear and uncertainty created by the Modi government that has led to the biggest exodus of wealth creators from India to locations such as Dubai, London and Singapore,” he said.
Quoting the Congress manifesto, Mr. Ramesh said the most important contribution of the INDIA government would be to “remove the current environment of distrust and fear, and create a healthy ecosystem where private enterprises, regulatory authorities, tax authorities and government will work in a spirit of mutual cooperation and respect”. “This is a complete contrast with the Modi government’s vindictive and arbitrary approach whose main goal has been to extort funds, suppress competition against a favoured few and eliminate all freedom in decision-making. These anti-competitive policies have contributed to underinvestment, concentration of economic power and unsustainable K-shaped growth,” he said.
He said that the INDIA government would replace the current GST system with a GST 2.0 which would be a single, moderate rate (with a few exceptions). “We will enact a Direct Taxes Code and maintain stable personal income tax rates throughout the next five years. We will eliminate “angel tax” and all other exploitative tax schemes that inhibit investment in new micro, small companies and innovative start-ups,” he said.
