Kerala Finance Minister KM Mani on Wednesday told the Assembly that the State was in the grip of a financial squeeze due to the general slowdown prevalent in the entire country even as the Opposition lDF staged a walkout in the House over the failure of the Congress-led Government to control the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities.
“We are feeling a small-scale financial squeeze but it is not bad enough to warrant the issuance of a white paper,” the Finance Minister told the Assembly. The squeeze was the result of the failure of the tax collection to go up as expected mainly because of the general economic slowdown prevalent in the country, Mani said.
The revenue income of the State till November 30 last was 30,154.46 crore, which showed an increase by 11.96 per cent in comparison with the corresponding period the previous year. However, the positive effect of this growth had been offset by an increase by 7.17 per cent in revenue expenditure, he pointed out.
The revenue deficit till November 30 was 2,309 crore and financial deficit stood at 4,976 crore, the Minister said. The external debt burden of Kerala had gone up by 24,661.69 crore in the past two years to reach 1,02,684 crore, Mani said. However, he claimed that the State was not facing any financial crisis.
In the meantime, the State Assembly on Wednesday witnessed noisy scenes and an Opposition walkout over the Government's failure to check the unprecedented rise in prices of essential commodities. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy claimed that the Government was doing everything it could to check price rise but this did not satisfy the Opposition.
Moving notice for an adjournment motion on the matter, CPI member C Divakaran, former Food Minister, accused Food and Civil supplies Minister Anoop Jacob of living in a dream world and of not having time to see the plight of the 3.25 crore people who were living under the yoke of unprecedented rise in prices of essential commodities and fuels.
Divakaran pointed out that the situation, which was already bad, had worsened further with the hike in the prices of diesel, petrol and, above all, cooking gas. Even food at hotels had become costlier, he said, adding that the Government was not intervening in the market in the required manner to check the price rise.
Replying to the notice, Anoop Jacob claimed that the price of rice was under control and that the only brand of rice that had seen a rise in price was Jaya, a variety imported from Andhra Pradesh. “Price rise is not all that intense. Factors in other States must be influencing the price situation in Kerala as we are a consumer State,” Anoop said.
Intervening in the discussion, Chief Minister Chandy admitted that there was price rise in the State. “But the Government is not sitting with folded hands in this situation. We are doing whatever we can to control prices. The Government had spent 110 crore last year in subsidies and for keeping prices under control,” Chandy said.
Following the Chief Minister's explanation, the Speaker refused leave for the adjournment motion, protesting against which the Opposition walked out of the House. The Opposition had held walkout on Monday over the recent 220-per-cylinder rise in the price of cooking gas for domestic consumers. Meanwhile, CPI member VS Sunilkumar moved a notice for breach of privilege against Chief Minister Chandy alleging that he had misled the Assembly by hiding the Food Department order limiting market intervention by Kerala State Horticultural Products Development Corporation (HortiCorp) to festival seasons.
When Deputy Opposition leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan had demanded an explanation on the order on Wednesday morning, Chandy had told the House that there was no such move and that HortiCorp had indeed been intervening in the market by selling commodities at prices 30 per cent lower than in the open market for checking price rise.