Congress demands Financial Emergency be declared in country

Congress party on Friday demanded that a financial emergency should be declared in the country and a white paper be released on the "shrinking economy and rising frauds".

Congress spokespersons Jaiveer Shergill and Gaurav Vallabh accused the BJP government of destroying the credibility of the country's economy and banking system and demanded that it should declare the names of wilful defaulters, along with the details of their non-performing assets (NPAs).

"The Congress demands that a financial emergency should be declared in the country," Shergill told a press conference here.

"We reiterate that the BJP government should release a white paper on the shrinking economy and rising frauds," he said.

"It is getting clearer by the day that the country is heading towards a major recessionary phase. This is a classic case of recession under expansionary trends, as whenever there are three continuous quarters of growth recession (reduction in growth quarter-on-quarter), the chances of slipping into a full-blown recession are significantly higher," Vallabh said.

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He added that once the June 2019 quarter numbers were announced, it would be clear that India was witnessing a reduction in growth for five consecutive quarters.

Vallabh said the problems that this phenomenon put forth were that natural recovery did not occur and the country had to solely rely on monetary policy actions, while the short-term stimulus remained short-term and only helped in assuaging wounds.

"The questions we want to ask the government are what is its response to the prolonged reduction in growth? Does it have any clue of what is actually wrong and who's responsible for the same," Shergill said.

As a responsible opposition, the Congress wanted the government to immediately issue a white paper on the state of economy, he added.

"Rather than a band-aid approach, we want substantial solution to this state of the economy," the Congress spokesperson said, wondering why the government would not accept that the country was witnessing a recession and it would only be revived when a private and public investment cycle would start in the economy.

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Shergill alleged a "systematic decimation of the economy" with a worsening distress in the farm sector, factories and finance, adding that only frauds, fake promises and aggression on the system were rampant in the country under the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) rule.

He also alleged that frauds in the banking system shot up by 74 per cent to Rs 71,543 crore in the 2018-19 financial year, compared to frauds worth Rs 41,167 crore committed in the 2017-18 financial year.

"RBI data has revealed that 27,125 cases of bank frauds of a whopping Rs 1.74 lakh crore (Rs 1,74,753 lakh crore) were reported in the past five years. Is this amount similar to recapitalisation of banks? Why, suddenly now, so many cases of frauds are out? Is it an indirect way of looting taxpayers' money?," the Congress spokesperson asked.

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Nirmala Sitharaman's press brief

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressing a press brief on Friday lambasted the Congress party for indulging in "huge corruption and scandals."

She said, "They (Congress) led the country with corruption and exploited the public asset," she said.

However, Nirmala Sitharaman said 'nothing has been decided' when questioned over the government's plan to utilise the Rs. 1.76 lakh crore that was taken by the RBI. 

Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that the government is taking steps to make the country a $5 trillion dollar economy. 

Bank mergers major announcements: 

1) Big banks enhanced capacity to increase credit, FM Nirmala Sitharaman says in prelude to announcement of new bank mergers.

2) Punjab National Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank to merge to form India's second largest bank: FM.

3) PNB, Oriental Bank of Commerce, United Bank merger to create bank with Rs 17.95 lakh cr business, 11,437 branches: FM. 

4) Canara Bank to merge with Syndicate Bank to create 4th largest public sector bank with Rs 15.20 lakh cr business: FM. 

5) Union Bank, Andhra Bank, Corporation Bank to merge to become India's 5th largest public sector bank with Rs 14.59 lakh cr business: FM. 

READ| Asaduddin Owaisi joins attack over RBI's capital transfer to Centre

6) Indian Bank and Allahabad Bank to merge to create 7th largest public sector bank with Rs 8.08 lakh cr business: FM

7) Bank of India, Central Bank of India will continue as public sector banks: FM. 

8) Public sector banks enabled to do succession planning: FM unveiling governance reforms in PSBs. PTI 

9) Bank boards given flexibility to fix sitting fee of independent directors: FM. 

10) Non-official directors to perform role analogous to independent directors: Sitharaman.