Coal to telecom spectrum, Modi govt’s white paper lists ‘scams’ during UPA regime

The report presented by Union Finance Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha highlights the state of the economy under the Congress-led UPA government's 10-year tenure and how the NDA set about turning it around

The Narendra Modi government on February 8 tabled the much-talked-about white paper in the Lok Sabha, detailing the state of the economy under the Congress-led UPA government's 10-year tenure and how the NDA set about turning it around.

The report presented by Union Finance Nirmala Sitharaman in the Lok Sabha added that the UPA government's decade of governance (or its absence) was marked by policy misadventures and scams such as non-transparent auction of public resources (coal and telecom spectrum), the spectre of retrospective taxation, unsustainable demand stimulus and ill-targeted subsidies and reckless lending by the banking sector with undertones of favouritism, etc.

The 2G spectrum scam involving 122 telecom licenses that had sliced Rs 1.76 lakh crore off the exchequer as per the estimates of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the coal gate scam costing Rs 1.86 lakh crore to the exchequer, the Common Wealth Games (CWG) scam, etc., indicated an environment of heightened political uncertainty and reflected poorly on India's image as an investment destination, the White Paper added.

FM blames UPA for 'mountain of bad loans', 'double-digit inflation'

It also highlighted the 80:20 gold export-import scheme launched by the UPA government and claimed that such an action resulted in illegitimate windfall gains for the beneficiaries before it was withdrawn by the NDA government.

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Some of the high-profile cases listed by the White Paper are: Coal Block Allocation, Commonwealth Games, 2G spectrum allocation, Saradha Chit Fund, INX Media case, Aircel-Maxis case, Antrix-Devas Deal, Embraer Deal, Hawk aircraft purchase, Adarsh Housing scam, Augusta Westland helicopter scam.

Poor policy planning and execution also resulted in large amounts of unspent funds for many social sector schemes during the UPA years, which in turn crippled the effectiveness of the government’s schemes, according to the White Paper.

The document on economic mismanagement aimed to settle the long-standing debate on the ‘issue of the economy’ once and for all before the Lok Sabha elections.

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