In a scathing condemnation of the government’s move to pressure the Reserve Bank of India to part with Rs 1.76 lakh crores of its reserve, the CPI (M) has deplored this cavalier manner of using reserves to meet the fiscal deficit. In a statement issued today, the polit bureau of the party has pointed out how, in the past, too, the public sector giant, the ONGC had been ‘fleeced’ to meet the Modi government’s extravagant expenditure like those on propaganda.
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The CPI (M) has also stated that the RBI, the monitoring authority and lender of the last Resort. And to ensure its financial stability shows the maturity of any government. RBI is the insurance to protect our economy from monetary or financial instability or any crisis generated globally.
This government has now forced the RBI to part with a whopping Rs. 1.76 lakh crores. During the past five years, the Modi Government has siphoned off Rs. 99.99 per cent of the RBI’s net profits every year. On top of this comes the current transfer.
The surplus transfer termed as “dividend” to the government is almost double the previous record of Rs. 65896 crores. The economic slowdown is also compounding the problems of the navaratnas (public sector undertakings).
With the unemployment rate crossing 9 per cent, the highest in decades, such transfer of surplus to meet the government’s expenditure and to contain the burgeoning fiscal deficit is hurting both the economy and the livelihood status of our working people.
Prime minister Modi speaks of respecting “wealth creators”, says the CPI (M). Wealth can be created only when value is generated. The vast army of working people today have no work to generate value. All sections, farmers, workers, MSMEs, youth and women workers are being badly hurt.
The CPI (M) has called upon all its units in the country to organise protests against this merciless assault on our economy and people’s livelihood.