Kerala’s CPI(M)-led lDF Cabinet on Wednesday allowed the Finance Department to issue a White Paper on the State’s financial situation as inherited by the present regime from the former Congress-led UDF Government. The White Paper will most likely be presented to the State Assembly in the first week of July.
Immediately after the lDF Government took charge last month, Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac, himself an economist, had said that the new regime had inherited an economy that was in a shambles. Isaac, who had been Finance Minister in the 2006-11 lDF Government also, had then itself stated that a White Paper would be issued on the State’s economy.
According to Isaac, the State’s coffers were empty when the UDF went out of power and that all that was left in the Treasury was just Rs300 crore. However, former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy of the Congress claimed that this was wrong and that the Treasury was holding a minimum of Rs1,800 crore.