THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister KN Balagopal presented the maiden budget of the second Pinarayi Vijayan government on Friday, laying thrust on bringing the Covid pandemic under control and reviving the state’s economy.
In an interview to TNIE, the minister said the key focus areas of the state government in the ‘Revised budget for 2021-2022’ were healthcare and infrastructure as a Rs 20,000-crore financial package was announced to help Kerala wade through the Covid crisis.
Excerpts: The highlight of the second Covid package announced in the budget is direct disbursal of a whopping Rs 8,900 crore to people who have lost their livelihood due to the pandemic. Can you elaborate on the disbursal process?
Certain areas have been identified for the disbursal of the fund. One is to help jobless people who are not covered under the social security pension scheme. We have allocated Rs 1,100 crore for the purpose. Another Rs 3,000 crore has been earmarked for the employment guarantee scheme to help people find livelihood and tide over the crisis. Also, we will disburse the arrears to contractors. Normally, these arrears are distributed after six months or even one year. We are looking to hand over the amount at the earliest so that the local economy gets stimulated.
There is Rs 10-crore allocation for supporting vaccine producers and vaccine research. Can you explain how it would help in boosting vaccine production like that for Covid-19?
Covid vaccine production is not an easy task. But we wish to create a favourable ecosystem for vaccine manufacturing. We are trying to bring forward companies which can start producing vaccines locally.
Companies having the licence will be offered the necessary facilities. Also the budget aims to encourage vaccine research.
Periodical hikes and timely disbursal of social security pension have definitely helped the LDF government retain power. Although the front’s election manifesto had proposed to increase monthly pensions, the budget did not have any proposal in this regard.
We had already effected two hikes since January. Of course, we will enhance the monthly pensions in a time-bound manner. We have set a target for five years.
A comprehensive health insurance scheme for government employees and pensioners was a major announcement in the two budgets of the previous government. Your budget did not touch upon that subject. Has the the project been dropped?
You are referring to the medical insurance scheme for state employees and pensioners. The proposal is very much alive. There is a court case pending against the tender proceedings which are in the final stage. Once the court settles the case, we would open the bids.
What is your favourite proposal in the maiden budget?
I can’t pick one. I prepared all of them with the right intent and earnestness. This is a continuation of the budget presented in January, except for some additions to deal with the pandemic situation.
And the focus, if you would ask me, is to bring Covid under control and to revive the economy. For this the whole population has to be vaccinated and thus our economy could be brought back to normal. Total vaccination will also give a boost to the state’s efforts to revive the tourism sector.