TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Updated: Mar 18, 2018, 22:38 IST
HIGHLIGHTS
The Congress on Sunday took aim at the Centre, accusing it of "governance and management misadventures and mistakes."
It adopted a resolution on the country's economic situation at its 84th plenary session, even as it alleged "mismanagement of the economy" by the government.
Here are the highlights from the resolution:
* The economy is in the hands of ignorant and incompetent policy makers who have derailed economic growth through reckless and bizarre policies such as demonetisation and a hasty imposition of a flawed Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime
* The BJP's economic philosophy is blind to India's size, scale and diversity and rests on an artificial principle of "oneness"
* The scars of this bizarre and destabilizing act (demonetisation) on Indian society will linger for long
* The Indian National Congress stands for a much simpler GST framework with a moderate and reasonable standard rate of tax, abolition of cesses outside the GST structure, a transparent mechanism for revenue sharing with the States, and a robust system of refunds
* Crony capitalism has been the hallmark of the Modi government's economic track record
* Inclusive growth was a term coined by Dr Manmohan Singh, which highlighted the importance of inclusion and equality
* The Modi government has distorted the concept and use of Aadhaar; instead of being an instrument of empowerment, it has been turned into an intrusive instrument of control and, in many cases, of exclusion of the very poor
* Wrong tariff policies - for both imports and exports - have made trade in agricultural commodities uncertain and too dependent on the government's beneficence
* The Indian National Congress wishes to emphasize the importance of exports in India's economic growth and ability to create jobs.
* India has abundant labour but the quality of India's human capital is not satisfactory. Education and health are the two critical factors that determine the quality of human capital
* Instead of crafting policies that will create jobs, the Modi government has chosen to live in denial of India's jobs problem, hiding behind a facade of compromised research claiming that the economy generates more formal sector jobs than any other country in the world
* The demonetisation and reckless GST implementation has greatly damaged the backbone of the mass scale employment generating unorganised sector as well as small and micro industries along with self-employed labour
* The Indian National Congress resolves to win back economic freedom for India's entrepreneurs, especially the micro, small and medium business persons, protect them from harassment and provide a stable business environment
* Sustained economic growth is the path toward becoming a middle-income developed country
