The new United Democratic Front government is saddled with an “empty treasury” that threatens to hobble the implementation of its pre-poll welfare promises and prompted it to line up a white paper on the state of the Kerala coffers.
The government helmed by V.D. Satheesan, who also holds the finance portfolio, has entrusted a panel headed by K.M. Chandrasekhar, who was cabinet secretary during Manmohan Singh’s tenure as Prime Minister, to come up with the white paper within 10 days, recommending measures to create new avenues for revenue.
A few days ago, veteran Congress leader A.K. Antony and outgoing finance minister K.N. Balagopal of the previous Left government had locked horns over Antony’s claim on the “empty treasury”.
Antony had claimed that the situation was 10 times worse than the scenario in 2001 when he took over as chief minister from the Left. The CPM’s Balagopal had claimed that the Pinarayi Vijayan government was leaving behind a stable treasury with a cash balance of ₹6,000 crore.
The president of the Congress-affiliated employees’ union Kerala Secretariat Association, M.S. Irshad, told The Telegraph on Tuesday that Balagopal’s claim was baseless.
“The Satheesan government faces a huge challenge in delivering on the promises he made during the election campaign. Balagopal’s claim of leaving behind a cash balance of ₹6,000 crore is a gimmick,” Irshad said.
According to Irshad, when the term of the Left government ended on March 24, it had claimed to have cleared project dues worth ₹9,000 crore but did not submit any bills. It also falsely claimed that the state coffers had a balance of ₹6,000 crore, he added.
Jiji Thomson, who was chief secretary during the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government, told this newspaper that there were “unique” ways to generate revenue. “The state government can raise funds by printing ads on the back of bus tickets. Also, the Kerala State Transport Corporation can privatise inter-state bus services. In order to meet the expenses towards paying welfare and social security pensions to 62 lakh people every month, 85 per cent of the property tax being generated currently by the local bodies should be handed over to the state government,” he said.
