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New Delhi: The BJP claimed on Thursday that the Indian economy is on track to achieve double-digit growth and that the government has launched a slew of new initiatives to help boost the economy.
While addressing a press conference at party headquarters, BJP national spokesperson Gopal Krishna Agarwal said, "Our economy is out of the woods and is on the path to achieving double-digit growth. The post-Covid economy is showing a strong recovery and all the indicators show that the economy is going for double-digit growth not only this year but also on a sustainable basis, over a period it will see a strong growth rate or higher single-digit growth".
When it comes to the agricultural sector, he claims that overall farmer debt has decreased while income has increased. "Agriculture situational assessment survey of NSSO said that there is 59 per cent surge in income from the previous survey from Rs 6,426 increase in 2012 to Rs 10,289 per month in 2019," he said.
"Household farmers indebtedness also decreased. Indebtedness of farmers having small landholdings less than 2.5 acres also decreased after adjusting inflation by 50 per cent. The budget allocation of the government for the agriculture sector has also increased by 5.5 times. Agriculture exports increased by 22 per cent," he said.
He also cited reports to show that India's labour force participation has increased to 40.1 per cent in 2019-20.
"Direct tax collection has also increased by 28 per cent as compared to pre COVID period. Indirect tax collection has also increased along with exports. For the last nine months, the GST collection has exceeded Rs one lakh crore per month," Agarwal said.
In addition to this, he also pointed out that merchandise exports increased by more than 45 per cent."All these reports together show the economy is on the recovery path and the government has taken several initiatives which will further boost the economy and lead us to a path of double-digit growth on a sustainable basis on a higher rate of single-digit rate," BJP national spokesperson said.
Further, he also emphasised that the country's ranking in the Global Innovation Index has improved to 46 from 81 in 2015, while India was ranked 48 last year.