Govt financial action plan ‘miserly’: Cong
New Delhi: The Congress on Thursday branded the Financial Action Plan announced by the Modi government to tide over the coronavirus crisis as “miserly” and “hopelessly inadequate” even as CMs of states ruled by the party said that the Centre needs to release the federal GST share immediately to help fight the pandemic.
Congress on Thursday branded the Financial Action Plan announced by the Modi-government to tide over the coronavirus crisis as “miserly” and “hopelessly inadequate”, as even chief ministers of states ruled by the party said that the Centre needs to release the federal GST share immediately to help fight the pandemic.
“Financial Action Plan I failed to instil confidence in the poor and as a result, we witnessed the tragic spectacle of thousands of migrant workers desperately trying to go back to their villages by any means whatsoever, including on foot. That spectacle will forever remain a blot on the Modi-government,” a resolution adopted after a virtual meeting of the Congress Working Committee said.
It demanded that the government should announce Financial Action Plan II that will reassure the poor people and also provide adequate financial support to the sections that were left out, including farmers, tenant farmers, landless agricultural workers, MGNREGA workers without work and laid-off industrial workers. The party demanded a number of steps to give relief to the people, such as cutting GST rates for a period of three months on goods of mass consumption, mandatorily postponing tax payment deadlines and EMI dates to June 30 and restoring the thoughtless reduction in interest rates on PPF and small savings.
The chief ministers of Congress-ruled states of Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Punjab, who participated in the meeting through video-conferencing on an online platform ‘Zoom’, demanded that Centre should immediately give the state’s share of Goods and Services Tax and MGNREGA wages to help them handle the financial crisis due to the outbreak.