India is sound, strong, will not fall into recession: Nirmala Sitharaman

HYDERABAD: "India is not on the verge of recession," said Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in a press meet conducted at BJP State office in Hyderabad on Saturday. She read a Bloomberg report which had suggested that India was at zero percent risk of recession and said India's GDP growth might be at a low base but definitely better than other developing countries.

She said that the Telangana Government was changing the names of the Central Government's schemes for Telangana and showing it to the public as their own. She also said that it was a lie that the Centre did not give funds to Telangana.

She also said that the Centre could not decide on how much money was to be given to States, nor could they disburse money according to any favouritism towards the States. She added that the finance commission would take all the decisions.

Speaking about the digitisation of funding of infrastructure projects in the State, she said that the Centre and the State would have certain share in every project and to immediately disburse both the State's and Centre's funds in projects, the Centre decided to digitise it.

When asked why Telangana was not getting tax money or recognition in consonance with its contribution to the country's GDP, she said, "In Telangana, Hyderabad contributes to approximately 55 per cent revenue.

Do other districts only work for Hyderabad? Do they stick posters of Hyderabad's MP in their districts?"

The Union Finance Minister refrained from commenting on Hyderabad Liberation Day, which would be celebrated by the Union and the State on September 17. She said that the State's BJP leaders had spoken enough about it, they being the ones who fought for the celebrations to be held.

After being questioned about a video of her speaking to the District Collector of Kamareddy, which went viral after Telangana's IT Minister KTR tweeted it, she said that she was right on her part as a public representative to ask a question. She said she did not cross any lines of dignity and did not use any objectionable or unparliamentary language.

To queries on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM)'s limit for the States, she said that during Covid, when it was required, the borrowing limit was raised from 3 percent to 5 percent. It was not that the Centre was unresponsive to such requests. However, it only did it when required.

Speaking on why the Centre was against 'freebies', she said that the State should consider how they were going to pay for the subsidies they were giving and if there was enough revenue in the state to afford the freebies.