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Growth at what cost, asks BJP

Neena Vyas

Over 9 per cent growth in last 3 years lacks “social justice or equity”

NEW DELHI: It is “growth without social justice or equity.” This how the Bharatiya Janata Party described the growth of over nine per cent registered by the United Progressive Alliance government in the last three years.

Party spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad comment on Saturday came after Friday’s revised Gross Domestic Product estimates, released by the Central Statistical Organisation, indicated that in 2007-08, growth could be nine per cent as agriculture was estimated to have grown by over three per cent.

Inflation ‘painful’

Talking about inflation, which had crossed eight per cent, Mr. Prasad said that for the common man the growth story was “painful.”

The UPA government had not been able to pass the benefits of higher growth to the economically weaker sections.

It “mismanaged” the supply-side of the food economy despite a higher growth registered by agriculture and the claim of a bumper harvest this year. Why did food prices go up if the country had just seen a bumper harvest?

Fuel prices

On the expected increase in the price of petrol, diesel, kerosene and cooking gas, the BJP reiterated that taxes and customs duties should be lowered to moderate the impact on the common man. Instead, the Centre had been enjoying a huge revenue windfall as a result of higher prices of international crude.

Mr. Prasad advised “revenue management” to insulate the common man from the skyrocketing prices of crude in the international market.

The Finance Minister, he said, had reaped a “bumper harvest of revenue” from the high price of oil and the man in the street continued to feel the pinch.

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