New Delhi: Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday tabled a 'white paper' on Indian economy in Lok Sabha in which the government presented how the economy improved from 2014 to 2024 in comparison with the UPA ule between 2004 and 2014.
Sitharaman in her Interim Budget speech had announced that the government would come out with a 'white paper' outlining the economic mismanagement in the 10 years of UPA rule till 2014.
Here are the key points from the 59-page 'white paper':
- When the Narendra Modi government assumed power in 2014, the economy was in bad shape, nay, and crisis. The Centre faced the hydra-headed challenge of fixing an economy mismanaged for a decade and restoring its fundamentals to sound health.
- India then was among the fragile five economies and now the country is among the top five economies and makes the third-highest contribution to global growth every year.
- In 2014, the world had lost confidence in the country's economic potential, while now with economic stability and growth prospects, India hopes to inspire others.
- The country's telecom sector lost a decade due to the 2G scam and policy paralysis. Under the UPA rule, the process of allocation of spectrum lacked transparency and was frequently misused which resulted in the 2G scam. The telecom sector went into a seizure as the government was caught out by the Supreme Court judgement.
- Aadhar has suffered at the hands of UPA. The UPA could not establish any sense of common purpose and there were wide inter-ministerial differences in the scope, purpose and implementation responsibility. It was NDA's re-imagination of Aadhar that energised Aadhar, making it purposeful as a tool of empowerment that cuts away middlemen, helps facilitate direct subsidies to the poor deseeding duplicate benefits and brings authenticity to transactions.
- The introduction of the Goods & Services Tax was a much-needed structural reform. Prior to the introduction of GST, the melange of state levies, over 440 tax rates, excise duties and the compliance requirements of multiple agencies administering these rates the country's internal trade was neither free nor united.
- The new tax structure is characterised by political consensus building and pooled sovereignty of the GST Council, both key examples of cooperative federalism. In order to protect the revenue interests of the states, during the initial years of GST, the Centre guaranteed compensation for states for five years (2017-2022) for any revenue shortfall from a minimum growth of 14 per cent in GST revenues.
- The far-reaching tax reforms over the past decade have put in place effective systems that have improved revenue collection and compliance. The average tax-GDP ratio for FY15 to FY 24 RE is about 10 per cent, higher than the ten-year average of 10.5 per cent during 2005-14.
- The Centre has taken up multiple reforms in the coal sector in the last 10 years in order to address the inefficiencies and enhance competition and transparency. After assuming office, the NDA government enacted the Coal Mines Special Provisions Act, 2015 to ensure transparent allocation of coal resources and energy security of the nation.
- The Centre also addressed multiple issues plaguing the power sector and transformed it from power-deficient to power-sufficient. The availability of power in rural areas gas increased from 12 hours in 2015 to 20.6 hours and in the urban areas, it has increased to 23.8 hours.
- Under UPA, India had double-digit inflation and now the inflation has been brought down to little over 5 per cent.
- Under UPA, India had a foreign exchange crisis, now under the Narendra Modi government, India has record foreign exchange reserves of over USD 620 billion.
