By Express News Service
KOCHI: Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac presented the budget without doing any justice to the findings and recommendations of the Economic Survey.
The budget stands testimony to his lack of resolve and sincerity in overcoming the financial crisis which the Economic Survey describes as extremely severe. The budget lacks any programme for generating employment and aims at imposing a freeze on appointments in the guise of austerity measures.
In effect, there are only two practical sources of revenue - liquor and lottery sale. The irony here is a Finance Minister who claims to be a Leftist in a government led by Marxist-Communist parties is mobilising funds using lottery and liquor!
The government has declared the coastal area package hoping to wash its hands off the failure in tackling Ockhi. The budget also lacks new industrial projects or solutions to the industrial slow-down. The shortcomings are many when it comes to Isaac’s budget
