The Congress on Wednesday accused the Narendra Modi authorities of “fudging” financial information and demanded an evidence for revisions to the earlier 12 months’s GDP figures, citing former finance secretary Subhash Chandra Garg’s declare that the adjustments had made the newest development price seem stronger.
“Subhash Garg has punctured the federal government’s tall claims of seven.8% GDP development, arguing that India’s actual GDP development is nearer to 2.6%,” Congress chief Pawan Khera wrote in a submit on X (previously Twitter).
“His competition is much more damning: the earlier 12 months’s GDP development was revised downward, making this 12 months’s development price look stronger by comparability.”
Khera mentioned Garg’s evaluation appeared nearer to “the lived actuality of unusual Indians”, pointing to “rising costs, falling buying energy, shrinking disposable incomes and financial savings, stagnant job alternatives, and rising family debt”.
“These claims can not merely be dismissed. They arrive from somebody who served as Finance and Financial Affairs Secretary of the Authorities of India underneath Modi between 2017 and 2019,” he mentioned.
“The federal government now owes the nation a transparent clarification: Why had been final 12 months’s GDP numbers revised downward? Why is it fudging numbers? What’s the actual GDP development?”
Jairam Ramesh, the Congress’s common secretary in-charge of communications, launched the same assault.
“The Modi authorities will solely expose its true actuality as a lot because it beats the drum of fabricated GDP development, conjured up by means of statistical sleight of hand by its workforce and media, as a result of that is the exact opposite of floor realities,” Ramesh wrote, additionally citing Garg’s interview to NDTV.
“We wish the economic system to really be sturdy, however the path to a powerful economic system does not come from embellishing numbers fabricated on a basis of lies—it comes from accepting the reality,” Ramesh wrote.
“The federal government ought to first acknowledge the actual financial state of affairs, then undertake reforms: jobs must be created for the youth, MSMEs and personal funding must be boosted, demand and incomes ought to rise, financial inequality ought to lower, and as an alternative of selling crony capitalists, honest competitors must be ensured.
“The Modi authorities should perceive: PR can polish the image of GDP, however not the economic system itself.
“It is clear that on the very GDP for which Mr. Modi is urging residents to burst crackers and rejoice Diwali, severe questions are being raised by his personal former Finance Secretary,” Ramesh wrote.
Garg had questioned the revisions made to the earlier 12 months’s GDP figures and mentioned the official headline quantity wanted nearer scrutiny.
“The 7.8 per cent determine seems spectacular on the face of it, however we should always study the truth behind it,” he mentioned in his interview with NDTV.
“Progress within the first quarter of final 12 months was additionally initially reported at 7.8 per cent. That determine has now been revised down to six.9 per cent. If you happen to revise final 12 months’s GDP down, the expansion price for the present 12 months mechanically goes up.”
Garg mentioned the first-quarter GDP at present costs for the earlier 12 months had initially been estimated at Rs 86 trillion however was subsequently revised right down to Rs 80 trillion.
“By revising final 12 months’s GDP down by as a lot as Rs 6 trillion, the expansion in current-price GDP for the primary quarter of this 12 months is proven at about 10.3 per cent,” he mentioned.
“Had final 12 months’s GDP not been revised, development at present costs would have been solely 2.6 per cent.”
Requested whether or not he was suggesting that the sooner figures had been revised to make the newest numbers look higher, Garg replied: “That’s precisely what I’m saying.”
“I’m making this assertion responsibly. Final 12 months’s first-quarter GDP at present costs was Rs 86 trillion. It has been revised right down to Rs 80 trillion, making this 12 months’s determine look higher.
“Had the earlier determine not been revised, development at present costs would have been 2.6 per cent.”
Garg’s 2.6 per cent calculation considerations GDP development at present costs, or nominal GDP.
The previous finance secretary mentioned the capital expenditure numbers remained sturdy however raised questions on consumption.
“If you happen to take a look at gross fastened capital formation, development this 12 months has been proven at about 15 per cent. The capital expenditure is real. Even should you use final 12 months’s authentic determine, development stays above 15 per cent. There isn’t a downside with the capital expenditure numbers,” Garg mentioned.
“However take a look at consumption. Final 12 months’s consumption determine has been revised down so drastically that, should you examine this 12 months’s quantity with the determine initially launched by the federal government, consumption has contracted.
“That displays the present financial actuality: individuals’s consumption is declining.”
Garg additionally mentioned the federal government ought to “recognise the truth of India’s financial state of affairs” and undertake reforms as an alternative of “attempting to regulate the numbers a method or one other”.
India’s economic system recorded official GDP development of seven.8 per cent within the April-June quarter of 2026-27, slowing from 8.6 per cent within the previous quarter. Prime Minister Narendra Modi described the efficiency as a “herculean feat”, whereas the Congress referred to as the figures “statistical gymnastics”.
There have been others who’ve doubted Garg’s evaluation.
“Garg is considerably proper concerning the factual revision he’s exposing: MoSPI beforehand reported ₹86.05 trillion of nominal GDP for Q1 FY2025-26 and now stories roughly ₹80 trillion for that very same quarter. His 2.6% arithmetic towards as we speak’s ₹88.27 trillion can also be right,” wrote Sandeep Manudhane, an entrepreneur.
“However it will not be completely proper to name that 2.6% India’s precise GDP development price, as a result of it mixes two totally different GDP vintages and makes use of nominal GDP, whereas the official 7.8% is a real-GDP development calculation utilizing two quarters recomputed persistently underneath the newest methodology,” he added.
