Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 7 (IANS) The last full budget of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government, which was presented by Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal in the Kerala Legislative Assembly on Friday on expected lines, came under fire from the opposition.
However, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has hailed the state budget.
“This budget is going to give an impetus to the policies that have been laid down to build the ‘new Kerala’ as it has several innovative measures to reach the goal,” said Vijayan.
“This budget will be taking care of the felt needs of our state, even when the Centre has imposed financial discrimination towards Kerala. The budget has addressed the short-term needs as well as the long-term needs and has been done without putting a strain on the people,” added the CM.
“Even when the Centre has ignored Kerala, this budget shows that the needs of the state have been taken care of. The new generation also has been considered to ensure their future is taken care of,” said Vijayan.
But Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan pointed out that this is a farewell budget of the Vijayan government.
“This is the worst ever budget that has been presented in the past 24 years (Satheesan has been a member of the Assembly since 2001).
The budget fails to show the real fiscal position of the state and portrays a false picture as Rs 15,000 crore plan expenditure has been cut and no provision has been made to pay out the debts. Likewise if one looks into the previous budget and the actual allocation that was made also shows things are in bad shape,” said Satheesan.
“The hike in the rates of the property tax (increase of 50 per cent from April 1st 2025) is in no way acceptable as this is going to be a big burden on the people. There has been no application of mind as the MSP for rubber in the previous budget was fixed at Rs 180 while the market price was above Rs 200,” added Satheesan.
State BJP President K. Surendran said this is no budget speech, it’s just a speech made in a maidan and has nothing to address the burning problems of Kerala.
“There is nothing to address the huge number of unemployed educated youth, nor does it address the manufacturing and the agriculture sector. There is nothing in the budget because of the poor financial management that is going on here and there is no point in blaming the Centre as it has done everything,” said Surendran.
–IANS
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