The former finance minister and BJP veteran Yashwant Sinha on Tuesday stated that the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had failed the people of the country by causing a slowdown in the economy after the failures on the front of demonetisation and the rollout of Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The idea of demonetisation, Sinha stated that, was aimed at eradicating the black money, but the government failed to do so. "No black money has returned. 99 per cent of the currency has come back into the system," Sinha said.
"The people of India can demand the finance minister's job for causing slowed down in the economy and failures in the decisions of demonetisation and GST rollout," Sinha stated.
Addressing a gathering in Ahmedabad, Sinha stated that the current government inherited several problems from the previous UPA government such as non-performing assets (NPA) of the banking sector and the stalled projects worth over Rs 25 lakh crore.
"Though the number of stalled projects had decreased in the last three-and-a-half years, projects worth Rs 17-18 lakh are still remaining to be completed. And the NPA of around Rs 8 lakh crore still remains. Due to this the growth rate has fallen," he stated.
Sinha said that one of the biggest flaw in the GST was that 40 per cent of the revenue stream, including petroleum products, alcohol and some aspects of construction sector, were out of purview of GST. "If we bring these under GST, people of India will get relief," he stated.