KOTTAYAM: In the wake of the leakage of budget documents ahead of its presentation in the Assembly, BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan demanded the resignation of Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac.
According to Kummanam, there was a serious negligence in the matter and the Finance Minister should take responsibility.
“The sanctity and credibility of the budget are crucial. In fact, Union government presented the Budget even as one of its member E Ahamed died on the same day, to avoid the leakage of documents considering its sanctity, ” he told reporters here .
Ridiculing it as a ‘KIIFB’ budget, Kummanam alleged that the Budget lacked vision as it was not based on realities. No serious measures have been announced in the budget to tide over the prevailing financial crisis, he added.
“There is nothing new in the budget. The government has completely relied on KIIFB for raising funds for various projects. KIIFB is an imaginary source for funds, which may not work out considering the previous experiences. While the government expected an amount of Rs 4,000 crore from KIIFB in the previous year it could raise only Rs 1,024 crore,” Kummanam said.
He also slammed the State government for not revealing details about fund allocations by the Central government.“In fact, a number of schemes are being announced by the state in accordance with the Central projects. Earlier, there was a precedence of declaring the details of Central funds. At the same time, State government also failed to find new revenue sources and in strengthening tax collection, which will badly affect state’s exchequer. The State government has made serious negligence in creating revenue,” he said.