THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In the next financial year, the central government’s grant, which includes the financial help to fill the revenue deficit, will be less by Rs.9000 crores. With this, the state government’s concerns have been raised at a time when it was in the process of preparing the budget. This reduction is due to the change in central government’s guidelines and policy changes. The state government will be presented in the third week of January.

The Finance Ministry is saying that there is an unprecedented financial crisis in the state. The grant for the revenue deficit have been reduced by Rs.6,716 crores when compared to previous years. The central government has also cut the limit of taking loans to Rs.24,638.66 crores. There is no favorable decision in the GST compensation too.

The state’s total debt burden is 37.18% of the total State Gross Domestic Product. The Finance Commission has said that his must be held at 25%. The central government is not only not increasing its support but also bringing it down every year, taking into account the state development indices. The central share that was 3.9% is now brought down to 1.9%.

Meanwhile, the state cannot go back on the destroyed social, economic, and basic infrastructure sectors that was hit by Covid pandemic and natural disasters. Last year, considering the Covid pandemic, the state budget did not go into harsh decisions to increase the revenue. The central governments hard stance to rein down public debt has not been relaxed.

This time around, the state budget will be presented before the central government’s budget presentation.