Speaking to reporters here in Mumbai on the Union Budget, Goyal said Rahul Gandhi is “a thousand miles away from the truth” and asserted that “discredited leaders” like him might try but would not be able to stop Prime Minister Modi and his services to the nation.
“The Congress is frustrated. It has no plan or solution other than spreading misinformation and fabricated claims. There is no point in criticizing us. They are trying to mislead our farmers by spreading wrong and false information,” he said.
“I am confident that discredited leaders like Rahul Gandhi of Congress and his allies including TMC, DMK and SP, parties rejected by the people, can try hundreds of thousands of times but no one can stop Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his services to the nation,” the minister further said.
The Mumbai North BJP Lok Sabha MP said the Congress has failed to understand its own limitations.
“Rahul Gandhi has no insight into the economy and only tweets false and misleading information on social media. He is thousands of miles away from the truth. The capacity and need for cotton farming in India will both increase. This policy of importing material and processing it for export is an old practice in global trade,” the minister said.
When immature people come into politics, accusations of such level are leveled, he said in a fresh attack on Rahul Gandhi over his criticism of the Indo-US trade deal on cotton farming and textile sector.
Textiles are a shining example of the country’s total exports, accounting for nearly Rs 3.60 lakh crore of the total, which will more than double in the near future, Goyal said in response to a question.
“Of the FTAs that India has implemented in the last few months, the contribution of the textile sector would be close to half a trillion dollars, which amounts to about Rs 45 lakh crore. Now that the textile market has been opened to us, this will benefit us. The United States alone buys textile products worth about Rs 9 lakh crore per year. Moreover, reciprocal tariffs on Indian goods have been reduced from 50 percent to 18 percent,” he pointed out.
Roughly half of total exports to the US from India will be at zero tariff, and the 18 percent tariffs on the rest are the lowest compared to any other competing country, Goyal claimed.
“We rank below China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Indonesia and Malaysia. India has received the lowest tariffs from the US compared to our competitors, and it has opened a $30 trillion market for India. I think this is a game-changer for India’s future progress,” he said.
The Union minister also noted that the European Union procures around Rs 22-23 lakh crore worth of goods from India, adding that textile products would be exported at zero tariff to markets like the EU, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
“The US produces around 480 million pounds bales of cotton every year, which is valued at Rs 1.25 lakh crore. It cannot harm the interests of Indian cotton growers. The US exports around Rs 45,000 crore worth of cotton. In my opinion, the only region of India produces more cotton than that,” the minister said.
The country’s demand for cotton is much higher and still rising, the senior BJP leader added.
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