The Congress leader said that private investment, private consumption, exports and government expenditures were four growth engines of an economy. Likening it to a car, he said, "If one or two tyres are punctured, it will slow down but in our case, three tyres are punctured."
Thane: Indian economy has become like a car whose three tyres are punctured, former finance minister P Chidambaram said on Sunday in Thane as he attacked the Narendra Modi government on rising petroleum prices and other issues.
"Private investment, private consumption, exports and government expenditures are four growth engines of an economy. It's like four tyres of a car. If one or two tyres are punctured, it will slow down but in our case, three tyres are punctured," the senior Congress leader said at an event organised by the Maharashtra Congress unit.
Government expenditure is on only in healthcare and in some other amenities, he said. "To keep this expenditure going on, the government has continued taxing petrol, diesel and even LPG. It is squeezing money from people in such taxes and spending some of it on public amenities," Chidambaram said.
Did you see any investment in the power sector recently, he questioned. "For example, out of the 10 major companies that went into insolvency, five were steel companies. How can you expect
any investment in such sectors," he wondered.
Chidambaram also criticised the government for introducing a "five-slab" Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. "Post-demonstration this government has introduced GST with five tax slabs with a cess over it. In other countries, GST is just one tax system but we can have two types of taxation in India. Still, having five slabs is not what we had imagined about GST," he said.