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BJP has no 'coherent' plan to meet economic challenges: Manmohan Singh

The Congress has painted a bleak picture of the Indian economy and said that the Bharatiya Janata Party did not have any 'coherent strategy' to meet the economic challenges going by the pronouncements made in the past two months.

Giving his impressions of the state of economy, former finance minister and Congress Working Committee member, Dr Manmohan Singh said that the economic situation showed a visible deterioration during 1997-98. He was addressing the extended CWC meeting yesterday.

There was a sharp deceleration in the rate of growth of national income while the gross domestic product had declined to 5.1 per cent, the lowest during the last five years. There has been a sharp decline in the growth rate of industrial production and exports.

While the capital market was in doldrums and investments in infrastructure was sluggish, the value addition in agriculture had come down by two per cent. The fiscal deficit had jumped to 6.1 per cent of the GDP due to the huge shortfall in customs and excise revenues. The only redeeming aspect was that the foreign exchange position was comfortable and inflation had stabilised at five per cent.

Commenting on Dr Manmohan Singh's address, Congress spokesman Salman Khursheed said Dr Singh wanted the government to outline how it would like to overcome the threat of sanctions following the Pokhran tests.

He said though the BJP-led coalition had promised seven to eight per cent GDP growth, massive employment generation through its national agenda for governance, it was silent on how additional resources would be found to finance the outlays and to meet other promises like increased defence expenditure.

Dr Singh said the new finance minister was yet to spell out ways of reducing the fiscal deficit to 'kickstart' the economy. He exhorted partymen to oppose any schemes like another voluntary disclosure scheme as it would destroy tax administration.

The CWC and the Congress Parliamentary Party, he said, should take a view on the proposed changes in the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act and it should insist on a 'tough' legislation to combat money laundering.

Dr Singh said that the Congress should support the disinvestment process and the Disinvestment Commission must become a statutory authority by becoming part of an overall public sector restructuring package.

He said the party should demand with the government on how it proposed to ease out import restrictions on 2,700 products in a time-bound fashion as committed to the World Trade Organisation. The recent list, published by the commerce ministry taking out restrictions on 300 items, was arbitrary.

UNI