All India Congress Committee (AICC) General Secretary and former Union minister Ajay Maken has expressed strong concern on sky-rocketing inflation which has derailed the normal life of common people. He said that more people have become poor in country. Addressing a press conference at Congress office on Wednesday, he told that amidst the economic recession in country, Central Government has burdened the people with skyrocketing prices. People are paying more to purchase the necessary things. Going retrospective, he told that previous UPA government, through hard work, had taken out 27 crore people from the poverty line but during Modi government tenure, 23 crore people went back into poverty line.

 

In May alone, two crore people lost their jobs and 97 per cent people are getting less salary. Owing to losing the jobs and due to less salary, people were forced to withdraw 1.25 lakh crore from Provident Fund in country. He added that at a time when GDP is reducing, hike in prices is an unpardonable offence. “Corona alone is not responsible for this economic disaster. Our economic system was already swarmed by many problems before the arrival of corona ,” he fumed. He asserted that nation’s growth rate had tanked to 4.1 per cent in 2020 from 8.2 per cent in 2017.

 

This all happened due to demonetisation and faulty implementation of GST. Petrol diesel rates have gone through the roof and are all time high. It is for the first time that petrol prices have crossed the mark of Rs 100 per liter in more than 250 cities in country. Since April 1, 2021 to July 2021, petrol diesel prices have been hiked 66 times. Central Government earned profit of more than Rs 25 lakh crore through Excise duty in seven years. In 2014-15, income earned through excise duty on petrol diesel was Rs 1,72,000 crore and it increased to Rs 4,53,000 crore in 2020-21.