Cong slams govt over ‘rising economic inequality’

New Delhi, Jul 17 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday hit out at the government over “growing economic inequalities” and claimed that every data points to a widening of gap between the rich and the poor.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh shared on X a media report which claimed that the difference between the consumption expenditure of the rich with that of the poor is about 10 times.

“The Congress party has been constantly raising the issue that the gap between the rich and the poor is increasing in the country,” he said.

Citing the media report, Ramesh pointed out that the monthly consumption expenditure of the poorest 5 per cent of the country’s population in rural areas is just Rs 1,373, while the monthly consumption expenditure of the top 5 per cent rich in urban areas is Rs 20,824.

“This is new data. But no matter what data you look at, all show evidence of a growing gap between the rich and the poor,” Ramesh said in a post in Hindi on X.

He claimed that more than 40 per cent of the wealth created in the country from 2012 to 2021 has gone to just 1 per cent of the population.

“About 64 per cent of the total Goods and Services Tax (GST) in the country comes from the poor, lower middle class and middle class,” he said.

“Over the past ten years, most of the public assets and resources have been sold to one or two companies – economists have pointed out that growing monopolies in the economy have led to inflation,” Ramesh said.

Today, 21 billionaires together have more wealth than 70 crore Indians, he claimed.

The Congress has been attacking the government over issues such as rising inequalities, inflation and unemployment, alleging that its policies are responsible for it.