Govt has taken wide-ranging measures to boost economic growth: BJP

The BJP on Sunday asserted that the government has initiated wide-ranging measures to kickstart the investment cycle and boost economic growth while maintaining fiscal discipline, as it hit back at the Congress over its criticism of the Union Budget 2020.

BJP spokesperson G V L Narasimha Rao said the Congress, when in power, had failed to address the challenges facing economy, leaving it in dire straits.

The party is hardly qualified to comment on the Modi government's "successful" economic policies in the face of a global economic downturn, he said.

"The NDA government has initiated wide-ranging measures to kickstart the investment cycle and boost economic growth while maintaining fiscal discipline," Rao said.

The planning of Rs 100 lakh crores of investment in public infrastructure, lowering of corporate taxes announced a few months ago, restructuring and recapitalisation of banks, increased allocations to agriculture and rural development, lowering of personal income taxes to put more money in people's hands to give a boost to consumer spending are some of the policy initiatives with far reaching positive implications for the economy, he added.

The Congress-led UPA government was known for fiscal profligacy and consequential double digit inflation, Rao said.

The BJP spokesperson said the 2020-21 Budget focuses on the Small and Medium Enterprises sector and its punitive steps against cheap, low-quality imports of goods would give strong impetus to the employment in the organised manufacturing sector of the economy.

The Congress had slammed the Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday as "insipid" and said it failed to address challenges like unemployment and economic slowdown.