Budget’s credibility is shattered, govt has not implemented majority projects in previous budget, says opposition leader

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Opposition Leader V D Satheesan harshly criticized the first full budget of the second Pinarayi government. There is no correlation between the budget presented by the finance minister and the current financial indicators in the state. Alleging that the budget was unrealistic, the opposition leader said that the finance minister had only made a document out of the proposals of various departments.

There is no proposal or policy formulation in the budget for the coordination of various departments. Many of the projects announced in the previous budget have not yet been implemented. This is the state of almost 70 percent of the projects. Not even a single rupee was spent. In the last budget, health sector was given importance. Nevertheless, the opposition leader criticized that Kerala stood first in the country in terms of the number of Covid patients and Covid deaths. The government has not made any efforts to conduct any study or research to analyze the Covid situations in the state, alleged V D Satheesan.

Although the budget mentioned about employment loss and financial crisis, no action was taken to overcome it. This budget lacks credibility. In the state, revenue has decreased and expenditure has increased. Former Finance Minister Thomas Isaac had claimed that if GST is implemented, then the revenue income would increase up to 30 percent. However, currently it is below 10 percent. The tax administration system has also not yet been implemented in the state.

An amount of Rs 9432 crores was allotted for central projects in the last budget. Only Rs 67 crore was implemented. If the project amount is not spent, then centre will not provide further amounts. Financially, the state is in a dangerous zone, said the opposition leader.