National News Politics

Finance Minister Sitharaman Defends Centre Over Price Hike

Sitharaman
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India has emerged as the fastest growing economy amid the pandemic.

Mumbai: After a lot of chaos in both the houses of the parliament over price rise and inflation for more than  10 days since the monsoon session began, the finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman came to the parliament yesterday to address the opposition after recovering from Covid. Responding to the debate on price rise she provided an overview of all the parameters for assessing the economy, saying that there is no chance the country will slide into recession or stagflation.

Congress raised against her and said that it wasn’t satisfied with her response. To Congress, the union minister said, “Congress MPs are walking out, their hypocrisy has been exposed.”

Sitharaman then added, “The pandemic, second wave of Covid, Omicron, Russia-Ukraine — in spite of all this we have held the inflation at 7 percent or below. And that has to be recognized, currently, retail inflation is at 7 percent. During the UPA rule from 2004 to 2014, inflation went into double digits. During that period, the inflation was above 9 percent for 22 consecutive months. Efforts are made to bring down inflation.

The finance minister also added that India is still better than other nations.

“I fully credit the people of India for this, even against adversity we are able to stand up and be recognised as as the fastest growing economy,” she said.

The Congress MP Manish Tewari  accussed the BJP led government of mishandling the economy by demonitisation, GST hike .

The minister also asserted that the Goods and Services Tax (GST) levied on food items such as curd, lassi and wheat would not burden poor households.

TMC’s Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, munching on a raw brinjal, said the price of LPG cylinders had been increased in a row for four times in recent months. “From Rs.600 to now Rs.1100.Does the government want us to eat raw vegetables?” She asked.

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