As a sluggish economy continues to grip the country, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lok Sabha MP Virendra Singh Mast on Thursday denied any situation of an economic slowdown and termed it as an attempt to defame the government. While speaking in the Lower House today, he asked that if there is a decline in automobile sales, then why are there traffic jams on the roads?
“An atmosphere is being created that there is an economic slowdown. To defame the nation and government people are saying that the automobile sector has slowed down. If there is a decline in automobile sales then why are there traffic jams on the roads? There are 20 vehicles in one home. You never decide what should be the relation between consumer and production,” he said in Lok Sabha today.
Mast is a Member of Parliament from Ballia in Uttar Pradesh.
The opposition parties have launched frequent attacks on the Modi government over the current state of the economy. They have also raised the issue in the ongoing Winter Session of the Parliament.
A few days ago, opposition MPs had walked out of Rajya Sabha when Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was speaking on the economic situation of the country. The government has announced several measures to revive the sluggish economy, including slashing corporate tax rates.
In September, Sitharaman had reasoned that the “millennial mindset” of using app-based cab services was the reason why people were not buying cars.
Speaking to reporters in Chennai to highlight the achievements of the Modi 2.0 administration, the Finance Minister had mentioned the abrogation of Article 370, 35A and rolling out of GST and Income tax reforms while also responding to a plethora of questions ranging from the slump in the economy to the slowdown in the automobile sector, among other political issues.
Being in the automobile capital, Chennai, the minister when peppered with questions on the slowdown in the sector, said to be the worst in nearly two decades, said, “It is true that the automobile sector in India had a good time till two years ago, there was definitely a good upward trajectory for automobile sector. The automobile sector is affected by a range of issues such as rollout of Bharat Stage VI emission standard, higher registration fee, the mindset of millennials who prefer to use ride-hailing services such as Ola and Uber over committing to an EMI for purchasing a vehicle, besides the use of public transport such as metro.”
In October, Domestic passenger vehicle sales fell for the 10th consecutive month, registering a 31.57% decline.
Source: dnaindia.com