Country facing financial stress: HD Deve Gowda

Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda said on Thursday the country is facing financial stress and noted that never in the past money was drawn from the Reserve Bank of India.

“There is financial stress in the country. For the first time, money has been drawn from the RBI. So far as I know never ever in the past, money was drawn from the RBI,” Gowda said at a press conference at the party office here.

He was referring to the RBI’s decision to transfer Rs 1.76 lakh crore of dividend and surplus reserve to the government.

The amount comprises Rs 1,23,414 crore of surplus for the year 2018-19 and Rs 52,637 crore of excess provisions identified as per the revised Economic Capital Framework (ECF), RBI said in a statement on Monday.

Gowda said, “Whatever the previous RBI governors (Urjit Patel and Raghuram Rajan) and deputy governor (Viral Acharya) have spoken is already there in the public domain.”

The former prime minister said employees in many government departments have not got their salaries for many months while many public sector units were on the verge of closure.

He claimed that close to six lakh people have been rendered jobless as an impact of closing down the public sector units.

Stating that possibilities were high that the many PSUs may be handed over to the private hands, Gowda opined that thegovernment may intensify divestment process.

He also cited the example of Peenya Industrial Area in Bengaluru which was badly hit due to recession.

The former Prime Minister said the nation has suffered adouble whammy on the financial front.

“On the one hand there is recession in the market, while on the other, natural calamity across the country in the form of floods has wrecked havoc causing enormous financial losses,” Gowda said.