Govt's fiscal stimulus package hopelessly inadequate; Not the time to worry about fiscal deficit: Chidambaram

The Congress on Monday said the fiscal stimulus package announced by the government is "hopelessly inadequate" given the gravity of the economic crisis and claimed it amounts to only Rs 1.86 lakh crore, which is 0.91 per cent of the GDP.

The party sought a revised and comprehensive package of 10 per cent of the GDP, and batted for "additional expenditure over and above the budgeted spendings", saying it is not the time to worry about fiscal deficit.

Senior Congress leader and former finance minister P Chidambaram said the stimulus package has left several sections like the poor, migrants, farmers, labourers, workers, small shopkeepers and middle class high and dry.

"In our view, a fiscal stimulus of Rs 1,86,650 crore amounting to barely 0.91 per cent of GDP will be totally inadequate given the gravity of the economic crisis and the dire situation in which the people find themselves," he said at an online press conference.

Chidambaram said most analysts, rating agencies and banks have placed the size of the fiscal stimulus between 0.8 to 1.5 per cent.

On Sunday, former union minister and Congress leader Anand Sharma accused the government of misleading people with its "trickery, fakery, quackery" and said the economic measures announced by the Centre amounted to only 1.6 per cent of India's GDP, i.e. worth Rs 3.22 lakh crore instead of Rs 20 lakh crore as claimed by the prime minister.

"We express our thorough disappointment and request the government to reconsider the stimulus package and announce a revised and comprehensive fiscal stimulus package of not less than Rs 10 lakh crore of real additional expenditure equivalent to 10 per cent of GDP," Chidamabaram said.

Later, he tweeted, "On behalf of the Congress I reacted today to the so-called Rs 20 lakh crore package. At the end of the day, the market too has reacted."
"The truth cannot be hidden for long."