Cong-NCP attack Maha govt on state of economy, question stats

The opposition Congress-NCP Monday accused the Devendra Fadnavis government of painting a wrong picture of the economy ahead of state polls scheduled for later this year.

Speaking on the state budget in the Assembly, former chief minister Prithviraj Chavan accused the state government of "tweaking" economic data in a "desperate bid" to paint a rosy picture of the state's economy.

Former finance minister and NCP leader Jayant Patil also accused the Devendra Fadnavis regime of "manipulating" economic data.

The BJP-led government, last week, said Maharashtra had grown at 7.5 per cent in 2018-19 witha Rs 4.05 lakh crore expenditure plan.

Initiating the discussion on the issue, Chavan alleged that the state's gross state domestic product (GSDP) was more likely to have been 2-2.5 per cent lower than 7.5 per cent as estimated by Directorate of Economics and Statistics in the Economic Survey Report (ESR) 2018-19.

"The Economic survey presented last year (for 2017-18) had projected a negative growth rate of -8.3 per cent in the agriculture sector. But this year, in the survey, government has claimed that it had achieved an agriculture growth rate of 3.1 per cent in 2017-18. This would mean a 11 per cent growth over the estimated numbers (in just a month). How is this possible? This is nothing but a jugglery of numbers," said Chavan.

The former CM also questioned the viability of the government's stated goal of becoming a trillion-dollar (Rs 70 lakh crore) economy by 2025.

"We are presently a Rs 27 lakh crore economy, and the state has grown at an average 7.5 per cent over the last five years. At the current rate, it will take another 13 years to achieve the target. The state's economy would have to consistently grow at 16.5 per cent to reach the milestone by 2025," he said.

"No state or country has achieved such a high growth rate. While it is good to set high benchmarks, the targets must be realistic. They should not be mere announcements," said Chavan.

Later, NCP's Patil, too, accused the government of using the budget for making "unrealistic" announcements to "mislead" citizens ahead of the state polls.

Chavan referred to former chief economic advisor of India Arvind Subramaniam's research paper, which has contended that India's real GDP growth itself was overestimated by 2.5 percentage points.

"Maharashtra is the backbone of India's economy," said Chavan and cited Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikantha Das' latest remark that the Indian economy has lost traction and needed a decisive monetary policy to the promote growth.

"The state claims rabi production is down by 63 per cent, and kharif production has dropped by 12 per cent this year. But it still has projected a 0.4 per cent growth in the agriculture (and allied sector) for 2019-20. The fact is the agriculture economy is in doldrums," he said.

He accused the government of "concealing" statistics regarding job generation, while charging that the state had fallen behind in the Centre's Ease of Doing Business index, and that the annual foreign direct investment in the state had been on a downward spiral.

Patil also asked the government to clarify how many jobs had been generated in the government and the private sectors, and why had the government failed to rein in fuel prices and inflation.

He targetted the government over the rising revenue deficit and public debt.