Take a jibe at the Congress for criticising the Centre’s economic strategies, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said that the “ease of doing corruption” during the UPA government’s rule has been replaced by the “ease of doing business” in the NDA government.
“The difference between the UPA and NDA-The ease of doing corruption has been replaced by the ease of doing business,” tweeted Jaitley.
The finance minister’s remarks came after Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi today said that demonetisation and GST have ruined the ease of doing business, seizing on a World Bank report that India had jumped 30 places on the 'ease of doing business' ranking.
Targeting Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Gandhi said the "entire country will shout to say that there is no ease of doing business in India".
Resuming his campaign from Jambusar town of Bharuch district in Gujarat, where assembly elections are scheduled next month, Gandhi said at a public rally, "Yesterday Arun Jaitleyji said some foreign organisation has certified that India has considerably improved in ease of doing business."
Jaitley, he said, sits in his office and believes what foreigners say.
The finance minister, Gandhi added, should meet small and mid-sized businessman for five-10 minutes and ask if the ease of doing business had really improved.
"The entire country will shout and say ease of doing business is absent, you have destroyed it, your demonetisation and GST have ruined it," Gandhi said.
Earlier in the day, Gandhi had put put a tweet in Hindi, taking off from a famous Ghalib verse to say that Jaitley was deluding himself.
"Sabko maloom hai 'ease of doing business' ki haqeeqat, lekin khud ko khush rakhne ke liye 'Dr Jaitley' ye khayal achha hai (everybody knows the reality of ease of doing business, but this thought is good Dr Jaitley to keep yourself happy)."
In a phenomenal leap, India broke into the top 100 countries to do business in, registering an improvement of 30 positions in the World Bank’s survey report ‘Doing business 2018’ released on Tuesday.
The report came as an endorsement of the reforms carried out by the government and its economic policies, as the report made specific note of structural reforms undertaken by the Narendra Modi government as among the reasons behind this marked improvement.
