India facing debt trap, says Congress chief Kharge

PTI, Jan 17, 2024, 7:48 PM IST

Source: PTI / File

New Delhi: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Wednesday claimed the country is facing the risk of falling into a debt trap due to the policies of the Modi government and said the truth cannot be hidden behind the noise of “advertising tamashas”.

Kharge said the IMF has “warned” the country over its high debt-to-GDP ratio of 81 per cent instead of the acceptable 60 per cent.

“The Modi government will present the last budget of its tenure in 15 days. Some facts – the savings of the country’s families are at the lowest level in 50 years. This has fallen to 5.1 per cent of GDP.

“While the total debt of the government (fiscal deficit – central government: 5.9 per cent, State: 3.1 per cent) is estimated to be around 9 per cent.

“According to this, it is clear that the government alone will have to borrow more than what the families of the country are saving. This is most dangerous,” he said in a post in Hindi on X.

According to IMF, he said, the Debt to GDP Ratio should be 60 per cent, “but it is currently at 81 per cent, and IMF has also warned on this, which the Modi government has habitually rejected.”

“The Indian government is continuously getting ensnared in the debt trap. It may happen that like some big economies of the world, both our economy and the future of the country get entangled in a vicious circle and fall into big trouble,” Kharge said.

The Congress president alleged that the Modi government boasts of spending more, but the reality is that 15 ministries have so far spent only 17.8 per cent of the last budget.

This, he said, includes ministries of MSME, Petroleum, Civil Aviation, Food Processing, Corporation, Minority and North East.

“The truth cannot be hidden from the noise of advertising ‘tamashas’,” Kharge said.