The report revealed that due to GST and demonetisation,
several jobs were lost and firms shut in Tiruppur
district in Tamil Nadu, a knitwear hub.
"Make in India is not working and has failed the people.
Botched implementation of GST and the disaster of
demonetisation have cost jobs," said Tharoor, who is
also the AIPC Chairman.
Responding to a query that GST was also mulled by the
UPA, Tharoor said, the concept of the Congress was a
"bit different."
Noting that the entrepreneurial spirit in the country
was "severely eroded" due to GST and demonetisation, he
said, instead of faciliating Start Up india, the report
from Tiruppur shows that central government policies
"undermine" the spirit of entrepreneurship.
"This is a great dissapointment. We are not judging the
government by our yardsticks. We are judging the
government by what they claim and what they are trying
to do," the MP said.
"They have failed in terms of their own goals. Their
slogans and empty speeches have never looked more hollow
when you look at this report from Tiruppur", he said.
The BJP government claims have been so "inefficient"
that the Tiruppur companies despite paying GST, they
were not getting the refunds, he said.
The cash flow in the textile firms has "dropped
dramatically" and they have been firing people because
the companies did not have the liquidity that was there
in the past, he alleged.
Asked about what would be the next step, he said, "the
next step is to change the government. Until then,
people must be aware of this problem".
"These issues are man-made. This is not because of some
global forces that have come in. These problems are
created by Central government. People of India ought to
know what is happening," he said.
The Congress leader said the victims were largely from
the small, micro and medium enterprise sector, which is
the backbone of the country.
To a query, Tharoor said he would take up the issue in
Parliament when it meets next month.
Source::: Economic Times,
dated 24/02/2018.