CPI led LDF government in Kerala today said Union budget was ‘disappointing’ and had failed to deliver justice to the state. Reacting to the budget proposals, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, said it had failed to include any measures to overcome the crisis in the economy due to demonetization.
In a facebook post, Vijayan said the Centre had failed to take into account the problems faced by the cooperative sector in the state post demonetisation. ‘Kerala had put forward certain suggestions during pre-budget discussions to face the crisis faced by the cooperative sector after demonetization. But they were not considered by the Centre’, Vijayan said.
Hitting out at the Centre, he said though it had promised that the states would be compensated when GST comes into force, no funds had been set apart for this. ‘The GST council itself had estimated that Rs 50,000 crore was required for this. Not a single paise has been earmarked’, Vijayan said.
Chief Minister also flayed the Centre for not keeping its promise of sanctioning an All India Institute of Medical Science centre for the state. The plan of the Centre to GO cashless was best example that the economy was being controlled by those who were unaware of financial background and livelihood of majority of people in the country, he said adding ‘This would only push the economy and rural sector backward’.
Finance Minister T M Thomas Issac said the budget proposals would result in price rise of commodities. Though the state had asked for a substantial increase in funds allocation from Centre following the slow down, ‘the hike was very nominal’, he told reporters here.
Centre has also not accepted the state’s demand for an increase of 0.5 percent in loans, he said. The Union Minister was exuberant for having brought down the revenue deficit to 3.2 per cent, ‘but this will only further aggravate the financial crisis in the country’, Issac said.
Criticising the budget, he said Union Finance Minister, aims to mobilise revenue from selling the share of public sector undertakings. “It was planned to mobilise an amount of Rs 75,000 crore by disinvestment of public sector undertakings’, Issac added.
Though the government had stated that it would double the income of farmers, there was only a marginal increase of Rs 3000 crore for agriculture sector from Rs 48,072 crores to Rs 51,026 crores, he pointed out.
Opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala said the budget proposals were far from reality and also neglected Kerala in all aspects. ‘There was no justification for denying AIIMS for the state which was promised in 2015 itself’, he said adding the concessions to income tax payers were also nominal.
While KPCC President V M Sudheeran also criticised the budget and said it had failed to address the problems of the country due to demonetization, BJP state president, Kummanam Rajasekharan, hailed the budget and said it was ‘pro people’ and had taken into consideration all sections of the society.