Continuing the attack on the NDA-led Centre, Congress leader Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that the government should not be "lured" into a sense of false equivalence because of the US-based agency Moody's upgrading of India's local and foreign currency issuer ratings.
The former prime minister joined the former finance minister, P Chidambaram, who has been criticising the government over the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), a brainchild of the previous UPA government.
While speaking to students of Ernakulam's St Teresa's College during an academic function, Singh said: "I am glad that Moody's has done what they have done but we must not be, I think, lured into a false belief that we are out of the woods."
Also speaking about the "undue haste" in the manner in which the GST was implemented, Singh said both the government and the bureaucrats were to be blamed. "I think there is much to be desired, in administration and in implementation. The bureaucracy has not done its homework," said Singh, adding that the GST Council met several times only to reduce the tax rates for 211 items.
Singh also pointed out that the rising crude oil prices will hurt the economy. "Now the crude oil prices are $62-64, whereas few months ago, they were about $40-45. So, it can hurt the balance of payment. It can also hurt the fiscal system," he said.
Singh's comments come days after Chidambaram launched a scathing attack on the implementation of GST. Taking to sarcasm, the former finance minister mocked the government after it decided to cut down taxes on 211 items in a meeting in Guwahati. "The Ministry of Finance must be complimented for improving the macro-economic situation in four months and 10 days. Four months and 10 days is the time taken for common sense to germinate, flower, and ripen into a fruit," Chidambaram had tweeted.
Mocking the government's elation over the sovereign rating upgrade by Moody's, Chidambaram said only a few months ago the regime had flayed the rating methodology.
"Just some months ago, the government had said the Moody's methodology was all wrong. A long letter was written by Shaktikanta Das (ex-economic affairs secretary) questioning Moody's ratings methodology, saying they've to revise their methodology as it's all wonky," he said on Saturday.
Chidambaram also referred to the criticality of job creation saying: "The government is unwilling to come up with reliable and authentic data. The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), which is a quite credible agency, stated that between January and June 2017, as many as 19,60,000 jobs were lost."
Moody's had on Friday upgraded the sovereign ratings by a notch to Baa2 with stable outlook, citing the Modi government's various reform programmes and higher growth prospectus. The last rating upgrade was in 2004.
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