New Delhi: While addressing a FICCI meeting, the BJP chief Amit Shah on Saturday said the dip in the GDP growth rate to 5.7 percent in the last quarter was due to some “technical reasons”. Previously, he had stated that Acche din had arrived.
The growth in GDP had gone up to 7.1 percent after falling to 4.7 percent in 13-14 when the UPA was in power, he claimed. The BJP leader also talked about demonetisation, and said that it has led to expansion of formal economy and brought black money into the government’s treasury which is being used for people’s benefit, reports News18.
He called the note ban an example of the tough decisions the government had taken to boost the economy. “I definitely believe that the formal economy has increased due to demonetisation. Money lying at various places is now part of the economy,” he said, adding that this government does not link policy decisions with vote bank.
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Shah said the number of total direct tax payers had doubled in the last three years from 3.7 crore to 6.4 crore. Industrial sectors should use this opportunity to expand globally, he stated.
The Modi government was focusing on long-term goals rather than short-term gains, he said, adding that direct benefit transfers now reach 36 crore people from 8.5 crore in 2014 and saved over Rs 59,000 crore in subsidies.
Earlier, this money would have disappeared due to corruption, he said.
Shah also touched upon the issue of banks’ non-performing assets, seen as a drag on the economy, saying the Modi government had inherited these bad loans and none of them happened during its tenure.