THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Innovative financing has helped the state tackle fund crunch and ease treasury restrictions. The Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE) and the Kerala Toddy Workers Welfare Fund Board (KTWWFB) have offered short-term loans to the government to manage a deficit of about Rs 2,000 crore at the fag end of the fiscal. The fund crunch is attributed to the Centre’s decision to slash the state’s borrowing capacity by about Rs 1,800 crore in the last quarter of the fiscal. This forced the government to impose several restrictions on treasury fund outflow.
Sources said KSFE would give Rs 750 crore and the KTWWFB is willing to provide anything between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 1,500 crore. The latter has already provided `300 crore.The government feels the curbs on borrowing limit is the Centre’s ploy to restrict the state from implementing welfare programmes ahead of the LS polls.
“The reason cited for the curbs on borrowings is the huge deposits in treasuries. The Centre did not consider the fact the state has limitations in utilising this money,” said an officer. In the case of additional requirement, the state government has identified a couple of cash-rich welfare fund boards and employees’ cooperative societies to seek help. The money will be repaid within 1-6 months with interest.
A large number of government-supported welfare fund boards and employees’ cooperatives have deposits worth several hundred crores. One of them is the Government Secretariat Staff Cooperative Society which has nearly `800 crore idling in its bank account.
In a smart move, the state government had earlier issued orders for the timely payment of social security pensions and welfare fund board pensions. A sum of `2,630.27 crore was sanctioned for social security pension and `343.84 crore for welfare fund board pensions.
Social security pension is distributed in three quarters in a year. The next disbursement is scheduled to start on March 25. It will include payments for December 2018, January, February, March and April.