The “White Paper” on the Indian economy during the tenure of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government was released on the second day of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s national convention on Sunday.
The White Paper was also brought by the BJP recently to Parliament against the Congress-led UPA government tenure. It recorded details of financial irregularities during the last ten years of the UPA government.
“The banking crisis in 2014 and the total amount at stake were huge. Gross advances by public sector banks in March 2004 stood at only Rs6.6 lakh crore. In March 2012, it was Rs 39.0 lakh crore,” the white paper read.
“In 2013, when the US dollar rose rapidly, the UPA government compromised external and macroeconomic stability, and the currency depreciated in 2013. Against the US dollar between 2011 and 2013, the Indian rupee fell 36 per cent. Infrastructure construction was seriously neglected, leading to a decline in industrial and economic development,” it added.
It continued to mention that across 14 key social and rural sector ministries, a total of Rs 94,060 crore of budgetary expenditure was not spent during the UPA government period (2004-14), which was 6.4 per cent of the cumulative budget estimates during that period.
“In an affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in response to a PIL, the UPA government said that about 40,000 kilometres of national highways were added. 24,000 km of national highways were added during the NDA regime from 1997 to 2002. Subsequently, only about 6,000 kilometres were added in the last ten years of UPA (2004-14),” the White Paper against the UPA government read.
“As a result of its fiscal mismanagement, the UPA government’s fiscal deficit was much larger than expected, and it ended up borrowing 27 per cent more from the market than in the 2011-12 budget.
The burden of fiscal deficit became too heavy for the economy to bear. Under the pretext of mitigating the impact of the global financial and economic crisis, the UPA government expanded its borrowings and stuck to it.
The UPA government not only borrowed huge amounts from the market but also used the funds raised in an unproductive manner,” it added.
