Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharman on Wednesday said the Indian economy may have slowed down but there is no threat of a recession.
Replying to a short-duration discussion on the state of the economy in the Rajya Sabha, she said steps taken by the government post her maiden budget have started bearing fruits and some sectors such as automobiles have shown signs of recovery.
Allaying concerns over revenue position of the government, she said direct tax and GST collections have both seen an increase in the first seven months of the current fiscal when compared to the same period of the last year.
The Congress, the TMC and the Left parties, however, staged a walkout of the House saying she was reading out her budget speech rather than addressing issues facing the economy.
“FDI inflows in 2009-14 were $189.5 billion and the same were $283.9 billion under BJP rule in the following five years, she said, adding that foreign exchange reserves rose to $412.6 billion under BJP from $304.2 billion in UPA-II.
"Economic growth may have slowed but there is no recession, there can be no recession," she said.
The Congress staged a walkout following her comments, as did other Opposition parties, saying she was reading out her budget speech rather than addressing issues facing the economy.
The All India Trinamool Congress, who had also walked out, tweeting that “Trinamool (& other Oppn parties) walkout out of #RajyaSabha because Finance Minister did not respond to specific demands of non-payment of GST to states, disinvesting PSU's, price rise & other issues during her reply on 'Economic Distress in the Country.'"
Defending the government’s economic policies, Sitharaman said that the 32 steps taken to revive growth in the economy were bearing fruit. She blamed the reduced GDP growth on the “lagged effect of the twin balance sheet crisis faced by banks in the last two financial years.
Dismissing the notion that there was a liquidity crunch in the economy, the Finance Minister said that there had been Rs 2.5 lakh crore distribution in loan outreach programmes.
She added that the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code had been yielding results with Rs 70,000 crore of capital infusion in banks leading to a rise in liquidity.
With inputs from PTI