TIRUCHY: Senior Congress leader and former finance minister, P Chidambaram on Sunday asserted that income of 30 crore daily wage labourers in the country have reduced by 50 per cent due to the economic slowdown. He said this while addressing reporters at the Tiruchy airport.
Citing an example, Chidambaram, explained, “The economic condition is in a very bad phase. More than 30 crore labourers who were working for 23-30 days are now working for only 12-15 days. This has reduced their income, which in turn has affected the spending power, consumption, sale and manufacture”.
Further, he accused the Union government of being focused on serving the corporate companies. “The BJP government has betrayed the mandate of the public. They are working for the corporate companies for the past three years. They got more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore from the RBI, where did they utilise it? They used it completely to waive loans of corporate,” said the former finance minister.
He added, “In the upcoming GST council meeting, the government will increase taxes for all commodities under GST bracket. 5 per cent will be increased to 8 per cent, 8 per cent to 12 per cent and 12 per cent to 18 per cent. Common man are burdened to serve corporate.”