Congress Critiques Modi Government on Weak Consumer Demand

The Congress party has raised concerns about India's weak consumer demand growth. Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh highlighted that despite a temporary rise in corporate profits, driven by various factors, India Inc is facing a modest financial start for 2024-25.

The Congress on Tuesday highlighted concerns about India's weak consumer demand growth. Addressing the issue, the party claimed that the Modi government is refusing to acknowledge this significant economic challenge.

Congress general secretary in-charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh, shared a media report on social media platform X. The report indicated that India Inc. has had a soft start to the financial year 2024-25, with net earnings declining and revenues seeing only a modest single-digit increase.

Ramesh emphasized that the rise in corporate profits over recent years wasn't driven by a surge in sales volume but by factors like decreased costs due to COVID-era automation, increased market concentration allowing leaders to raise prices, and government-offered financial incentives such as corporate tax cuts and Production-linked Incentives (PLIs). These temporary boosts are now fading, revealing the underlying issue of weak consumer demand growth, which Ramesh argues the current government is not addressing.

(With inputs from agencies.)