9 % GDP growth possible only under UPA, not NDA: Veerappa Moily

India has the potential to grow at nine per cent to achieve prosperity for all as projected by the NITI Aayog, but it cannot be achieved by the ruling NDA, senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily claimed Thursday.

"..India has the potential. But not with this NDA government. But only with the Congress which is going to come to power after May, 2019," Moily, Chairman of the parliamentary standing committee on Finance, said.

Claiming that the then chief economic adviser to government, Arvind Subramanian, in 2014, in an economic survey report, had said the fundamentals of the economy were strong, Moily said it was UPA I and II which built the fundamentals of the economy strong.


The growth would have crossed even 10 per cent had UPA continued in power, he claimed.

"Those fundamentals have been built by whom? UPA I and II. UPA has done 8.50 per cent (GDP growth). Had we continued, we would have even crossed 10 per cent of GDP," he said.

The economy was "collapsing" under the NDA regime with employment and investment lost and farmers suffering, he alleged. The RBI has been "shaken."

"Raghuram Rajan (former RBI Governor) who should have been legitimately given an extension, it was denied. Urjit Patel demoralised. He had to quit. Now the new person (Shaktikanta Das) has come who supported demonetisation," he said.

Demonetisation and the "flawed" GST had "destroyed the economy of the country" with GDP coming down by not less than two per cent, the former union minister claimed. Wealth to the extent of Rs 2.50 lakh crore was lost, he alleged.

"In view of this, the economy has failed. This is the second time they want to revise the methodology for working out the GDP. Just to suit their convenience. This will shake the confidence of the investors from abroad and here," he said.