KOCHI: Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac will present LDF government’s final budget on January 15, projecting it as “watershed budget that builds on the strength of Kerala’s local self-government for local economic development”.The budget session will begin on January 8 and the budget will be presented on January 15, sources said. “We are announcing a dramatic plan to provide jobs/livelihood to the state’s educated unemployed people. This will be a KIIFB-like out-of-the-box strategy,” a top source in the finance ministry told The New Indian Express.
“This will be a watershed budget that builds on the strength of Kerala’s local self-governments for local economic development focusing on local enterprise and innovation,” the source said.After it failed to raise resources and was constrained by non-payment of GST dues, KIIFB helped the government mobilise funds through off-budget channels.
Kerala has the highest unemployment rate among the educated. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), the state’s unemployed rate increased to 26.5 per cent in May this year, compared to the national average of 23.5 per cent. Isaac plans to address this segment of people through the big announcement in the budget.
Buoyed by the results of the local body elections, Isaac is also expected to continue social welfare schemes, in addition to livelihood assurance schemes. The broad contours of the scheme are to involve local bodies to devise for-profit projects by promoting entrepreneurships. “For instance, if you aggregate vegetables and other farm products from our homesteads, we can provide the biggest source of organic vegetables,” said the source. Banks will also be encouraged to finance small-ticket loans for such initiatives.
Sources said the budget will also be a vision statement for the next five years, capitalising on the work done in the last five years. KIIFB has its handful with key infrastructure projects across the state. It will be continued, and a specific time-line will be provided.
The budget is also expected to analyse the progress of the schemes announced in the last four years, after the Pinarayi Vijayan-led government assumed power in 2016. “Due to Covid-19, the plans announced in last year’s budget were either not implemented or not much of a progress was made,” an official said.
On the rising debt of the state, sources said this was not much to be worried about.