“India’s second quarter growth is the highest in the world as India continues to be the fastest-growing economy. The third and the fourth largest (Japan and Germany) economies have contracted as well as emerging economies.In comparison, India’s over 7% growth is significant… The activities are all across the economy. It’s not as if one sector is doing well…All sectors are growing and growing significantly for us to notice it,” the FM said, while responding to a short-duration debate in Rajya Sabha.
She reeled out a series of numbers — from exports to direct tax and GST collections — to argue that the Indian economy was doing well despite the global headwinds.
Sitharaman said that growth was driven by urban and rural areas. “All this is not happening only in metropolitan cities. Several things have happened in rural areas and that’s why our economy is getting the best from rural areas and urban too,” she said, while slamming the UPA for launching schemes without ensuring that the benefits reached everyone.
Pointing to several schemes from Jan Dhan to Jan Aushadhi and pension, the minister said: “UPA had come up with various ‘Naam Ke Vaaste’ Schemes which were launched but not executed properly and hence didn’t reach the common man. Whereas the Prime Minister Shri @narendramodi-led govt not only implemented new schemes but executed them in such a way that they have made a huge difference to the lives of the common man.”
She also said that a series of steps taken by the government have helped cool down prices and compared data on price rise from UPA’s tenure with the Modi government.
Amid repeated statements from Opposition ruled states that they have lost out on revenue after the introduction of GST, the FM said that the entire state GST flows to the province where it is collected, while half the integrated GST is transferred to the states. In case of the central GST, states get a 41% share based on the formula put in place by the Finance Commission. Besides, she said the transfers to states such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala have increased significantly with every Finance Commission award.