Tussle between Reserve Bank and govt
PM Narendra Modi dedicated the tallest statue in the world of Sardar Patel, made at a cost of Rs 3000 cr to the nation. He has called it the ‘statue of unity’. There cannot be a bigger joke than that. May be a government which forced the country to stand on the brink of division needed a comic relief such as this to cover up for its lacunae. Forget the unity among people, autonomous organisations working under the government are splitting through their functioning. All credit goes to Narendra Modi for having successfully wrecked every working institution in the country whether it is the CBI, Reserve Bank, Finance ministry to fight against each other, while pitting Dalits against people of their own community. Now, after all this, the government has erected a statue of unity.
The fight between Reserve Bank and central government is now out in the open. RBI governor Urjit Patel is almost close to submitting resignation to his post. RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya had spoken about government interference in Reserve Bank’s autonomy. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has accused RBI of indiscriminately giving out loans between 2008 and 2014. Swadeshi Jagaran Manch of RSS, which was lying silent so far, has now suddenly vented ire against RBI holding it responsible for rupee losing its strength against dollar with every passing day. The government has directed RBI to make leeway for loans, despite NPAs piling up and loans but being repaid. RBI has instructed 11 banks to stop giving out loans in this regard. Government has problems with RBI for the same reason that the institution has refused to give loans. PMO has raised objection about Viral Acharya’s statement on govt interference.
Autonomous institutes are experiencing challenges ever since Sangh Parivar controlled Modi government came into existence. This government has a single point agenda of destroying every autonomous institution built by Nehru’s team. Soon as they assumed power, the government dismantled UGC and then dismembered five year plans. The strongest agency CBI is now marred by infighting. JNU’s autonomy has been stripped off and efforts are on to communalise it. Modi government is out to destroy everything the country was proud of, in the last seventy years. Reserve Bank alone is not responsible for NPAs in banks, but the economic policies of all governments that have been in power in the past are also responsible for it. Unless they are changed, the govt has no reason to attack RBI and question its autonomy while safeguarding the interests of capitalists who abuse the banking system the most?
This is not the first time RBI is in tussle with the Modi government. When NDA assumed office after elections, the then RBI governor Raghuram Rajan had resigned following differences of opinion with Modi. He had even criticized the government after his departure. Eventually, Modi brought his own Man Friday Urjit Patel who also went into his bad books a little later. The government had not informed RBI of the demonetization decision, which was the cause of contempt. Now Modi govt is trying to control RBI using 7th article, in order to safeguard the interest of capitalists. This was not used by any government in the past even during times of distress such as 1991 or 2008 of global meltdown. Now Modi government wants to exert itself on RBI and weaken its structure and decisions. People have to teach this government a lesson, else it would march towards arrogant dictatorship unhindered.
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PM must explain why his govt scrapped Backward Region Grant Fund: Congress
New Delhi(PTI): The Congress on Friday hit out at the BJP for "scrapping" the Backward Region Grant Fund in 2015 and asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to explain why his government "callously" did away with the "forward-thinking" scheme of the UPA.
Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posed questions to the prime minister ahead of his rallies in Uttar Pradesh.
"Why has the Modi Sarkar scrapped the Backward Regions Grant Fund? Why has the BJP neglected UP's mentha farmers? Why has CM Yogi repeatedly lied about reopening the Budhwal Sugar Mill?" Ramesh said.
Elaborating on what he said were "jumla details", the Congress leader said the Backward Region Grant Fund, aimed at uplifting the backward districts of India, was "callously scrapped" by the Modi government in 2015.
"This forward-thinking scheme was established by the UPA government in 2006 and by 2013, Uttar Pradesh's backward districts had received benefits worth Rs 4000 crore from it," he said.
Ramesh pointed out that in 2015, the Modi government discontinued separate budgetary allocations for this scheme, transferring it to states and slashing annual funding to the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Abhiyan (RGPSA) from Rs 1,006 crore to just Rs 60 crore.
"This came as a significant blow to districts like Fatehpur that received crucial development funds from the scheme. Can the outgoing PM explain why his government so callously scrapped the Backward Region Grant Fund?" Ramesh said in a post on X.
Pointing out that India is the world's largest producer and exporter of mentha oil and UP alone accounts for 90 per cent of India's total production, Ramesh claimed that the mentha oil industry is now reeling from convoluted tax classifications, high GST, and general government neglect.
"Instead of trying to support farmers and processors, the government is trying to extract maximum revenue from the industry. First, the government follows a dual policy for mentha - it is classified as an industrial product under GST, but it is classified as agricultural produce when it comes to the Mandi Tax," he said.
This enables double taxation - GST as an industrial product, Mandi Tax as an agricultural product, Ramesh said.
"Farmers already have to pay the 12% GST on mentha oil sales, and under the new Reverse Charge Mechanism (RCM), RCM is levied on purchase. Mentha oil processors are forced to take on the tax liability when purchasing mentha oil from farmers and therefore take on dual tax liability," he said.
Finally, despite mentha being an entirely export-oriented product, the government provides no incentives to boost production, processing, or export, Ramesh claimed.
Why have the outgoing PM and the BJP neglected such an important Indian export, he asked.
"Even after repeated promises from PM Modi and CM Yogi, the Budhwal Sugar Mill remains inactive," he said.
"The PM first promised to revive all of UP's inactive sugar mills in 2014.Then in 2017, before assembly elections, Yogi Adityanath said that the mill would be revived if the BJP formed the government. The BJP won and formed the government but the mill remained inactive," Ramesh said.
Again, in 2022, CM Yogi Adityanath promised to restart the mill and even approved a supplementary budget of Rs 50 crore for the project, he said.
"The government also began to acquire land near the mill, raising hopes of its revival. However, months have now passed and no construction work has been initiated. After all of the BJP's promises, can the outgoing PM explain why the Budhwal Sugar Mill still remains inactive?" Ramesh said and asked the prime minister to break his "silence" on these issues.
