Union minister M Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday dismissed talk of the government lobbying with an agency for better ratings.
“There is no question the government trying to influence anybody,” Naidu said when he was asked about the matter.
Read | How India lobbied Moody’s for a ratings upgrade, but failed
He, however, said such ratings are based on the information made available to these agencies.
“What is wrong if any department or ministries has made efforts to provide information available to them?” he asked.
Earlier this week, documents reviewed by Reuters revealed India criticised Moody’s ratings methods and pushed aggressively for an upgrade, but the US-based agency declined to budge citing concerns over the country’s debt levels and fragile banks.
In letters and emails written in October, the finance ministry questioned Moody’s methodology, saying it was not accounting for a steady decline in the India’s debt burden in recent years. It said the agency ignored countries’ levels of development when assessing their fiscal strength.
Rejecting those arguments, Moody’s said India’s debt situation was not as rosy as the government maintained and its banks were a cause for concern, the correspondence seen by Reuters showed.
Source: HindustanTimes