‘Table white paper on financial status’

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The government was pushed on the back foot by the opposition in the assembly on Wednesday over the financial situation in the state. It demanded that the government table a white paper on the state’s financial health and walked out of the assembly after its adjournment motion for a discussion on it was turned down.

Seeking a leave for adjournment motion, V D Satheesan, MLA said stringent treasury restrictions were put in place in the past three months, which had resulted in non-expenditure of plan funds, non-payment of welfare pensions to over three lakh people and nonclearance of funds meant for children in anganwadis.

Quoting from a short story by writer P G Wodehouse, Satheesan dubbed the

Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board

(KIIFB) a farce, and said the ideas of finance minister T M Isaac Thomas on development were similar to that of the fictional character Ukridge who dreamt of building a chicken farm without having any money to spend. Satheesan said though everything has been diverted from the budgetary frame work to an extra-constitutional body like the KIIFB, the state has been complaining of difficulties in spending from the plan funds.

Isaac said the government faced difficulties in the past three months as the centre had imposed restrictions on borrowing. He said while expenditure increased by 22%, the revenue rose only by 7. 6%. “The state expected the increase in revenue from the GST to grow by 25% but actually it increased only by 14%,” he said. Despite all these odds, the restrictions on the treasury have been lifted, he countered.

The treasury benches and the opposition also locked horns over the number of people who were provided welfare pensions during their respective tenures. Isaac said while the

UDF

government provided welfare pensions only to 32 lakh people, the LDF government disbursed it to 42 lakh people. In his reply, former chief minister Oommen Chandy said when the UDF government came to power welfare pensions were provided to only 12 lakh people and that the government increased the number of beneficiaries to 32 lakh.

Hitting out at Isaac for blaming the GST for the crisis, opposition leader said the government was making flimsy excuses. He said the chief minister’s economic advisor Gita Gopinath had pointed out that GST was beneficial.

He accused the government of overspending to gain popularity even as it asked others to observe austerity.