Free rice for BPl families, scrapping of agricultural income tax, hike in welfare pensions, tax exemption for life-saving drugs, support for study loans, special fund for ensuring rubber price stability, etc were some of the sops proposed in the pre-poll Budget-2016 that Kerala’s Chief Minister Oommen Chandy presented in the State Assembly on Friday.
Chandy, who has been keeping the Finance portfolio since the resignation in November of KM Mani who was holding it, had begun reading the Budget document in the House by claiming that the past five years were years of development of Kerala and thanking the people of the State for supporting the Congress-led UDF regime in moments of crises.
The CPI(M)-led Opposition lDF, which had been protesting against the scam-beleaguered Government over issues of corruption, boycotted the presentation by alleging that the Budget had been leaked. Opposition members could be heard telling Chandy the details of the Budget he himself was going to present. “Is this a budgetIJ” Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan asked.
In stark contrast to the presentation of the 2015-16 by Mani on March 13 last year, during which the House saw unprecedented ruckus including vandalising of the Speaker’s dais by the Opposition and alleged open harassment of women Opposition MlAs by UDF legislators, the Budget speech on Friday was peaceful in the absence of the lDF members.
The Chief Minister who started the Budget speech by enumerating the big-ticket development projects his Government had implemented, especially the Vizhinjam international seaport, Kannur international airport and the Kochi Metro Rail, announced projects worth Rs 24,000 crore for 2016-17.
In the Budget which seemed to give emphasis to welfare and infrastructure, the Chief Minister who earmarked Rs 100 crore for the proposed new dam at Mullaperiyar said Rs 55 crore would be allocated for ensuring distribution of rice free of cost to all BPl families. He said Rs 764 crore would be allocated for strengthening the farm sector.
The sops announced for the rubber sector – Rs 500 crore for ensuring price stability and steps to guarantee Rs 150-per-kilo price – and the free-rice-for-BPl scheme announcement made the poll-related thinking behind the Budget preparation clear. The promise that the Government would reimburse the VAT in the handloom production sector was also in line with this.
Proposals for supporting those who were availing education loans were another initiative in this direction. There were not many new tax announcements but there were a series of tax relaxations in Chandy’s Budget. The relaxations were worth Rs 330 crore while additional resource mobilisation came to only
Rs 112 crore.
The Chief Minister also used the Budget speech to criticize the Narendra Modi Government in the Centre and the Opposition lDF. He alleged that the Centre, which had no sense of direction, had derailed several good schemes of the State. “History won’t pardon those who were running away from the calls for development,” he warned the Opposition lDF.
As per the last Budget of the UDF Government, Revenue deficit was Rs 9,897 crore and fiscal deficit 19,971 crore. The expected Revenue income was Rs 84,092 crore while Revenue expenditure and Plan expenditure were Rs 99,990 crore and
Rs 23,583 crore, Chandy said, adding that the expected capital expenditure was Rs 9,572 crore.
“Disappointing,” said economist TM Thomas Isaac, Finance Minister in the former CPI(M)-led Government, about the Budget. “It shows that the Government hasn’t been able to creatively intervene in the worsening economic situation of the State… Plan expenditure has fallen sharply. The Government is unable even to collect the taxes properly,” Isaac added.