Puthuppally: Opposition leader V D Satheesan expressed concern over the state's deteriorating financial situation and blamed the irresponsible management of the state's finances for the current dire situation.
The statement was made at a press conference ahead of the much anticipated Puthuppally bypoll.
“Between 2016 and 2021, the then CPM finance minister, Thomas Isaac, engaged in extensive borrowing without proper restraint. We had in our White Paper on Kerala’s finances in 2020 pointed out that all borrowings made outside of the State budget will be included, also in our latest White Paper we had informed of this, but our pleas fell on deaf ears,” alleged Satheesan.
Thomas Isaac had borrowed for KIIFB which was established as the principal funding arm of the government of Kerala in 1999. Its objective is to channelise funds for critical and large public infrastructure projects in Kerala and also for creating a Pension Fund.
Both these were floated in a manner that the borrowings made by them would be outside the state budget, but the Centre has not treated them in that way.
"It appears that Isaac operated with the assumption that Kerala's government changes every five years, and thus he took actions based on the expectation of a Congress-led government in the future. However, the retention of power by Pinarayi Vijayan's administration in 2021 has led to significant challenges. The Vijayan government's excessive spending and lack of efforts to boost revenue collection have exacerbated the situation. Balagopal is now blaming us and our MPs for not participating in his delegation to meet Sitharaman. But the claim that our MPs were invited is untrue," Satheesan further commented.
Satheesan slammed Balagopal, who had previously criticized the absence of Kerala's opposition lawmakers from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha during a delegation's meeting with Sitharaman.
Balagopal pointed out that around Rs 40,000 crore of borrowings have been slashed by the Centre leaving Kerala in deep trouble.
(with IANS inputs)
