Yashwant Sinha: Making weird statements will affect government's image

Yashwant Sinha

New Delhi: In a warning to the government in order to save their face, former finance minister and BJP stalwart Yashwant Sinha on Saturday said in a media briefing that those in power were making "weird" statements. "Bihar's finance minister (Sushil Modi) said there is recession due to Sawan-Bhado (the rainy season). A Union minister (Piyush Goyal) is talking about Einstein's law of gravity.People in the government are making weird statements. These statements will not lead to betterment of economy. But they will definitely affect the government's image," he said.

The former union minister also questioned Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's claim that surge in app-based taxis affected the automobile sector, asking why the sales of trucks should slump too. Reacting on Sitharaman's statement where she stated people using app-based cab services instead of buying car as one of the causes for the decline in the automobile sector, Sinha asked, "If companies like Ola and Uber caused a drop in passenger vehicle sales, then why there is a slowdown in sales of two-wheelers and trucks?" He also questioned Sitharaman's announcement to organize a mega-shopping festival in India on the lines of Dubai Shopping Festival to boost exports, PTI reported.

Also Read: Nirmala Sitharaman: Rs 60,000 crores boost to exports, housing

"The economies of UAE (United Arab Emirates) and India are different. India's economy will progress only when farmers in areas like Mandsaur in Madhya Pradesh progress," he said. "We should have grown at a rate of at least eight percent. But in the first quarter of the financial year, the GDP growth has come down to five percent," he said. He claimed that the missing three percent growth meant loss of Rs 6 lakh crore in just one quarter.

When asked about the government's plan to merge certain public sector banks, he was of the opinion that he is not opposing the decision. "But it will not reduce their non-performing assets automatically as the process may harm the banks as their officials will get tied up in completing merger formalities instead of focusing on actual banking," Sinha said.

With inputs from PTI

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