THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister Thomas Isaac has said the state had a treasury balance of Rs 3,000 crore which would help the government to meet the expense for free vaccination. He was responding to criticisms against the government’s crowdfunding for free vaccination.
“The Opposition Leader is wondering why there would be a vaccine challenge to implement a Budget announcement. The media too are asking whether the government does not have money to buy vaccines. Let me tell you straight. The treasury’s present cash balance is Rs 3,000 crore. The government has sufficient money to buy the required number of vaccines,” he said.
“Trollers are asking whether the Budget announcement on free vaccination was made without an allocation. This is due to their lack of knowledge on the budgeting procedure. The assembly has accepted the budget proposal for free vaccination. Now, a head of account needs to be created for that. Afterwards the approval of the house will be sought through an additional demand for grants,” he said.
In that case, Isaac said the state will have to drop any of the items in the budget. The state will witness a drop in revenue during the pandemic time. Commoners who realised this voluntarily came up for the vaccine challenge, he said.