Union Budget 2019: High growth and formalisation of economy has resulted in increased EPFO membership by 2 crore in last two years, said Finance Minister Piyush Goyal in the budget speech on Friday. Denying the criticism faced by the Modi government on job-creation, Piyush Goyal said if the economy is doing well, jobs are also getting created.
Interestingly, it comes a day after a leaked media report citing the the ‘Periodic Labour Force Survey’ (PLFS) published by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO), said the unemployment rate in India stood at 6.1 per cent in the period of 2017-18, which is a high rate in the last 45 years.
However, the government hasn’t still published this report that was prepared in the month of December 2018.
Meanwhile,Finance Minister Piyush Goyal also talked about how the Modi government was able to contain the inflation during its tenure. He said that due to government’s efforts, “Our families would be spending 35-40% more today on basic necessities such as food travel consumer durables housing.”
The inflation in December 2018 was just 2.1 per cent, down from the double-digit seen during the previous government, he added. He also said that fiscal deficit has been brought down to 3.4 per cent in the revised estimate of 2018-19.
