Jaitley defends slashing of GDP numbers in UPA era

November 29, 2018 13:52

A day after the Congress alleged that the government was manipulating GDP data, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley Thursday called the Central Statistics Office a highly credible organisation. Data released by the CSO Wednesday showed that the economy grew an average 6.7 per cent during UPA I (2005-06 to 2008-09) and UPA II (2009-10 to 2013-14), a percentage lower than the earlier estimate of 8.1 per cent and 7 per cent respectively.

I dont think any service is being rendered by those who discredit the highly credible organisation, CSO, Jaitley said.

The published data, which was calculated based on the new base year of 2011-12, showed that Indias economy grew at a slower pace during the UPA government as compared to the average 7.4 per cent growth rate in the first four years of the present NDA government.

Former finance minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, meanwhile, had tweeted on Wednesday evening: Niti Aayogs revised GDP numbers are a joke. They are a bad joke.

Actually they are worse than a bad joke. The numbers are the result of a hatchet job, he added.

Chief Statistician of India Pravin Srivastava on Wednesday said the new methodology is robust and aligned with UN Standard National Accounts.

We had to recalibrate the entire economy based on the production output and the datasets available using the approach which is internationally acceptedwe are more than confident that what we have produced today is more robust it was a very comprehensive exercise. I believe that what we are seeing is perhaps a better depiction of what was there earlier, Srivastava said.

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