Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his government would take strict action against financial irregularities PTI reported. Without identifying any organisations, the prime minister promised zero tolerance against the “looting of public money” during his keynote address at the at The Economic Times Global Business Summit in New Delhi.
His statements follow the surfacing of reports about a Rs 11,380-crore scam at Punjab National Bank. Businessman Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi have been named accused in the case.
“I want to make it clear that this government has been taking strict action against financial irregularities and will continue to take strict action,” the prime minister said. “The system will not tolerate loot of public money.”
The prime minister urged managements of financial institutions, auditors and regulators to do their job diligently. “I want to make an appeal to those who have been entrusted with the job of framing rules and policies and maintaining ethics to do their job diligently and with dedication,” the prime minister said.
India has come a long way from being considered as one of the “Fragile 5 economies” to being spoken about for its a $5 trillion dollar economy goal, Modi said. “The world is validating India’s competitiveness.”
The prime minister praised his government for connecting more than “1,10,000 village panchayats through optical fibres” in comparison with the previous government’s record of “59 panchayats”.
The prime minister also claimed that an environment of “crony capitalism” was entrenched in the Indian banking system during United Progressive Alliance rule. He claimed that the National Democratic Alliance government had solved 2,700 cases of insolvency in three months, with the help of 2,000 professionals and 62 institutions.
Citing data from international organisations, the prime minister said India has become stronger over the past four years. “India’s contribution to the Global GDP at the end of 2013 was 2.4%,” the prime minister said, quoting data from the International Monetary Fund. “It has increased to 3.1% in the four years of our government.”
The prime minister said India contributes 21% to world growth even though it is only 3% of the global economy. “Today, India is performing well in terms of all macro-economic parameters, whether it is inflation, current account deficit, fiscal deficit, GDP growth, interest rate or Foreign Direct Investment.”
The prime minister also spoke about his government’s social schemes, such as building toilets, and his focus on the health sector.
The prime minister’s statements about the economy come when India’s fiscal deficit – the difference between the government’s revenue and expenditure, and an indicator of how much the government may need to borrow – has been widening.
By November 2017, the government had already exceeded its fiscal deficit target for the financial year. Its deficit in the April to November 2017 period was Rs 6.12 lakh crore, while the Budget 2017 estimate was Rs 5.46 lakh crore.
While presenting the Union Budget earlier this month, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley projected a fiscal deficit of 3.3% of the gross domestic product for 2018-’19. In 2017-’18, the fiscal deficit was Rs 5.95 lakh crore or 3.5% of the Gross Domestic Product, revised from the earlier estimate of 3.2%.
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