NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday attacked the Modi government over the state of the economy, saying it must acknowledge the "acute slowdown" and move beyond piecemeal approach to put the "economic mess" in order.
The opposition party's sharp attack on the government came over a media report, which cited RBI data, to claim that the overall financial flows to the commercial sector have declined sharply, by around 88 per cent.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said the RBI report cited points to an "acute economic slowdown".
Between April 2019 and September 2019, credit has collapsed, which means economic activity has stalled, she said.
"We would want the data to be mulled upon. We need to understand it. In the last one year, fund flow to the commercial sector is down by 88 per cent, according to a new RBI data. Last year, this figure was at Rs 7. 36 lakh crore now it is around Rs 91,000 crore," Shrinate said.
"This is happening despite RBI cut repo rates. Repo rate is down by 1.35 per cent from January to now.
Despite that people are not taking credit because they're not convinced that they can do economic activity with this credit because people are insecure about their jobs," she said.
The piecemeal approach continues but the government does not have a comprehensive solution to put the economic mess in order, she said.
The fault lines are very vivid in the Indian economy but there doesn't seem to be a comprehensive approach to resolving it, Shrinate said.
Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra also attacked the government over the state of the economy, accusing the government of inaction.
"Companies are being shut down for 10 days in a month due to recession as there is no work. But the BJP government has deliberately closed its agenda for improving the economy," Priyanka Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.
"The economy is in real bad shape and the government is shying away from finding a solution to improve it," she added.
Shrinate said there are four wheels to a growth story -- private investment, public investment, exports and consumption.
"Consumption is down, exports are down, private investment is down, public investment was going on in some way, but that too is now decreasing. So somewhere this vehicle has collapsed," she said.
Shrinate raised questions over the growth rate of 5 per cent, saying the question is "how are we growing without this credit".
"The RBI conducted a consumer confidence survey, it is at a 6-year low in September.
People's faith in the Indian economy plummeted to a 6-year low in the month of September and over 50 per cent of the people are convinced that jobs will no longer be created," she said.
"You need to acknowledge the problem, you need to accept that we are in an acute slowdown and then you need to have a comprehensive solution, you need to have bold reforms, you need to justify your political mandate," Shrinate said.
Meanwhile, senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh attacked the government for demonetisation, saying new solid research evidence shows that the "Tughlakian decision" has severely damaged the Indian economy.
"New solid research evidence that the Tughlakian decision of demonetization has severely damaged the Indian economy.
We are still reeling and will continue to do so for some time.
But Our Omnipresent, Omnipotent, Omniscient One (O-5) will never accept it," he said on Twitter, in a apparent swipe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.