New Delhi, 24 Mar (IANS): Participating in a debate on the Finance Bill 2021 in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Deepender Singh Hooda, the Congress MP from Haryana, targeted the economic policies of the Central government and said the Centred had pinned the blame of economic failures on Covid-19 pandemic.

Hooda alleged the economy has derailed due to the wrong policies of the Central government. Mismanagement during of demonetisation, Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Covid-19 has forced the economy to be put on ventilator support. India was the among the countries with the highest decline in GDP due to Covid-19.

Hooda said,"What was the pace of the economy during the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule and what is it now during the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) dispensation? The 10-year average GDP growth during the UPA government was 7.8 per cent. If we were to consider the base year of calculating GDP today, it would be 11 per cent. While the six-year pre-covid period from 2014 to 2020 had witnessed a GDP growth rate of 6.8 per cent. This means that the growth rate has reduced rather than increase."

The son of former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said that any economy stands on four legs -- consumption and demand, investment, export and government expenditure. Comparing these four indicators, the economy's condition during the UPA and NDA regimes becomes clear.

Hooda further said,"If you compare the 10-year UPA dispensation and six years of NDA rule the industrial investment growth rate at the time of UPA was 14 per cent, today it has come drastically down to only two per cent. The rate of credit and bank loans was 13 per cent at the time of UPA, it has come down now to four per cent. The private consumption growth ie demand, which was 24 per cent at the time of UPA, has now come down to nine per cent. The corporate sales growth rate was 12 per cent at the time of the UPA, today it has halted at just three per cent in the last six years."

The Congress MP said that since demonetisation, the economy started derailing, GST broke the backbone of the economy but mismanagement during the Coronavirus pandemic has led the economy to the intensive care unit.

Hooda said Arvind Subramanian, who was the Chief Economic Advisor to the Modi government, had said in 2020 that the economic slump was not a common situation. "Since the last 30 years, the country has not witnessed such a slowdown. However, the Central government deliberately attempted to blame the economic failures on Covid-19 pandemic."