Congress legislator V D Satheesan said on Monday Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac's budget marks the “right turn” of the Left. “By undermining the plan process, you are pursuing the far right policies of the BJP government,” Satheesan said while participating in the discussion on the budget in Kerala Assembly.
He said for the first time in history a finance minister had effected a reduction in plan outlay by Rs 3,000 crore. “Like the BJP government at the Centre, you are now interested only in projects, not in the plan,” Satheesan said.
The Congress MLA also alleged that Isaac had fudged plan figures to make it look slightly better than what it was. “You have now included the Rs 2,200 crore mobilised from motor vehicle taxes and petrol cess and transferred to KIIFB (Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board), too, in plan figures. This has never been done before,” Satheesan said.
He termed Isaac's budget speech a “political statement”. “It was nothing but colourful fireworks,” he said. Satheesan said Isaac's budget figures had long lost its sanctity. In his last budget, Isaac said the revenue deficit would be Rs 8,770 crore. “But when he gave the revised figures in his latest budget, the deficit was Rs 17,474 crore. Same was the case with revenue receipts. You said it would be Rs 1.10 lakh crore. The actual figure is Rs 99,000 crore. A fall of over Rs 16,000 crore,” Satheesan said.
The Congress legislator was sharply critical of the packages announced in the budget. “I feared that we might be drowned under a flood of packages announced in the budget,” Satheesan said. He said the money earmarked for packages were merely illusory figures.
“It was said that Rs 6,000 crore was announced for Kochi leaving those in Thiruvananthapuram fuming. I told them not to worry as Kochi was actually given just Rs 2.5 crore. The mammoth crores Isaac had referred to related to projects that were initiated during Oommen Chandy's tenure,” Satheesan said.
He said the Wayanad and Idukki packages were a repetition of what Isaac had announced in his last budget. He said not even a project report had been prepared for various coastal development schemes Isaac had announced in his last budget.
Satheesan said Isaac's priorities were baffling. “It were the automobile and real estate sectors that were first hit in a recession. Now you have picked these very sectors for additional resource mobilisation,” he said and added: “What happened to you?”
