New Delhi : Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre on Wednesday, alleging that India has been locked in a cycle of low investment since 2014, which has marred its prospects of growing at a faster rate.

Blaming the BJP government’s “erratic policy, rampant cronyism,” and the alleged misuse of central agencies, the Rajya Sabha MP asserted that India needs a new “liberalized approach” to political economy, not “marginal policy tinkering.”

“The single most important statistic that explains India’s inability to grow faster since 2014 is the sluggish investment rate. India has been locked into a cycle of low investment since 2014, due to a combination of erratic policy, rampant cronyism, and the ED/IT/CBI Raid Raj,” Ramesh said in a statement.

This comes a week before the presentation of the Union Budget, as Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is scheduled to present Budget for 2024-25 in Lok Sabha on July 23. The Congress general secretary argued that low investment levels drag down medium and long-term GDP growth rates, which in turn drag down wages and consumption growth.

“The biggest component of investment – private domestic investment – has been in the doldrums since 2014. It was solidly in the 25-30 per cent of GDP range during Dr Manmohan Singh’s tenure. Under the self-declared divinity, it has been squarely in the 20-25 per cent of GDP range,” the Congress leader said.

He further said that as several countries were looking to divest from China, India was at the right place at the right time but the great opportunity has been “squandered” and nations like Bangladesh and Vietnam have benefited.

“Gross FDI as per cent of GDP has also more or less stayed constant since 2014. This is, however, only part of the story. Since at least 2016, multi-national companies across the world have been looking to divest from China and invest in other developing countries. India, with a large and growing labour pool, was at the right place at the right time – but this generational opportunity to garner FDI and become a manufacturing and export-oriented economy has been squandered.Countries like Bangladesh and Vietnam have walked away with the benefits,” he added.

Criticising the BJP government’s economic policy further, Ramesh said that “sops” like corporate tax cuts and PLIs are not enough, as the country needs a new, liberalised approach to political economy.

“Sops like corporate tax cuts and PLIs can’t compensate for a “freer society, polity, and economy” – one that is free from demonetization-like masterstrokes, cronyism, and Raid Raj,” he said.

“What India needs is not marginal policy tinkering, but a new, liberalised approach to political economy,” Ramesh added.

Notably, after presenting the upcoming budget, Sitharaman will surpass the record set by former Prime Minister Morarji Desai, who presented five annual budgets and one interim budget between 1959 and 1964 as finance minister. Sitharaman’s upcoming Budget speech would be her sixth.