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 discussion on the economic situation in the country in Rajya Sabha, she reeled out a comparison of numbers between the five years under the Congress-led UPA-II regime from 2009 to 2014 and the BJP's first term from 2014 to 2019, to say that inflation was lower and growth higher under the Modi government.
“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.
The All India Trinamool Congress also staged a walkout, later 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.
Earlier, in the Lok Sabha, two bills were tabled—the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2019 and the International Financial Services Centres Authority Bill, 2019.
With inputs from PTI
