Opposition UDF vows to expose Kerala Finance Minister's gimmicks

Thomas Isaac was simply contradicting himself on the reasons for the severe financial crunch in the state, not to mention lack of a clear approach to tide over the crisis, UDF said.
Finance Minister Thomas Issac presenting State Budget at Assembly hall in Thiruvananthapuram. (EPS | BP Deepu)
Finance Minister Thomas Issac presenting State Budget at Assembly hall in Thiruvananthapuram. (EPS | BP Deepu)

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:  The Opposition UDF is determined to bare open the grave financial situation in front of  the people and expose  the ‘gimmicks’ of  Finance Minister Thomas Isaac in the annual budget presented the other day, when discussions on it are scheduled for three days from Monday, said V D Satheesan MLA, KPCC vice-president, at a news conference here.He said Thomas Isaac was simply contradicting himself on the reasons for the severe financial crunch in the state, not to mention lack of a clear approach to tide over the crisis.

“After demonetisation-GST bashing, the minister had blamed the Centre for capping the borrowing limit after pegging the treasury savings in the public accounts of various departments as the total income of the state. Even after solving the issue and availing of `2,000 crore as the crisis in the financial front, borne from nothing but total fiscal mismanagement, is continuing,” pointed out Satheesan.

“The minister says that an annual average cess amount of `1,700 crore collected from the sale of petroleum products and vehicles, and which goes to the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), would make up a total `1 lakh crore corpus for the SPV (special purpose vehicle) in 10 years time. None could comprehend it. On a whole, Thomas Isaac is cleverly playing his cards so that the entire burden of repayment, including funds mobilised outside the budget for KIIFB, will have to be paid with interest, from 2021, by the next government,” he said.

On the charge of creation of around 5,000 posts by the former government had put a heavy burden on the state, Satheesan said it was needed in the health sector and the LDF Government has already crossed half the number of posts even now.“When tall claims are made, there should be matching results. It is absent in the case of Thomas Isaac,” he stressed.The onus of presenting details of  the source of  investment for businesses run by the kith and kin of CPM leaders rests with them, according to Satheesan.

“All public workers, including myself, are subject to public trial,” he said while responding to posers on the intrigues surrounding Binoy Kodiyeri,  the elder son of CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and an Arab national bringing the Gulf story of alleged cheating by  Kodiyeri son to Kerala soil and retrieve money due to him, while a press conference is also slated here on Monday.

Criticising the position taken by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan that there would not be any probe into the allegations against Binoy Kodiyeri, since the occurrence of the alleged matter was abroad, Satheesan said, over and above the legal and technical aspects in the issue, a clarity should come on moral grounds.
“The manner in which CPM leaders were humiliating many Congress leaders by raising false or unproven allegations should not be forgotten,” he said.

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