Tax burden: Govt remains firm in its stance, opposition intensifies protest

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With the government staying firm that it will not reconsider the fuel cess and tax proposals that result in price hikes and the opposition stating that there will be no compromise in the strike, Kerala will become a land of political conflicts. Yesterday, Kerala Kaumudi had reported that there is no possibility of corrections in the tax proposals.

The CPM and the government have assessed that yielding to the pressure of the opposition will be a political defeat. Although the opposition tried to put pressure on the government by staging a satyagraha strike of MLAs at the assembly gate, it received a sort of setback with Finance Minister KN Balagopal's response. However, the opposition will intensify the protest as they believe that the public anger is against the government on the issue of fuel cess. Today's assembly meeting will be turbulent. The strike of the MLAs at the gate will have to be changed as the assembly session will break for a while.

Time for the government to rethink
The recently announced tax and cess proposals will come into effect in April. The ongoing protests may die down by then as the people will not be directly affected till then. The government has time to reconsider looking at the situation in the coming days. The CPM will intensify its political campaign that the central government is blocking the state government's alternative policies of taking up public welfare schemes. CPM state secretary MV Govindan will explain this and the welfare schemes in the budget to the people in Kerala Jatha starting this month.