THIRUVANANTHAPURAM : The Centre is helping corporates by slashing market borrowings by governments, Finance Minister K N Balagopal said during a general discussion on the budget in the assembly on Wednesday.
Balagopal said that one of the reasons behind the Centre’s decision to reduce the borrowing limit was to facilitate more credit availability for the corporate sector.
“Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in the Budget speech that the Union government would reduce its borrowings by Rs 1 lakh crore in the new financial year. Now, this borrowing space will be utilised by corporates,” he said.
The minister said that his government could increase expenditure despite the financial crisis. “The total expenditure in the financial year ending March 2021 was Rs 1,38,000 crore. It rose to Rs 1,68,000 crore in 2023-24. There was an increase of Rs 30,000 crore,” he said.
The minister reiterated his claim that the current crisis was due to the centre’s decision to slash the borrowing limit and a drop in the central funds to the state. He said that the grant-in-aids for the state reduced from Rs 30,000 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 11,000 crore in the current fiscal.
Participating in the discussion, Leader of Opposition V D Satheesan said the budget lacked credibility.
A performance audit of the budget announcements will expose the lack of credibility of the two consecutive governments led by Pinarayi Vijayan, he said.
Satheesan said the fiscal indicators disprove the finance minister’s claim that the state had a ‘sunrise economy’.
“The revenue deficit rose from 0.88% of GSDP in 2022-23 to 2.09% in 2023-24. The deficit grew from Rs 9,226 crore to Rs 24,555 crore. The fiscal deficit increased from 2.44 pc of GSDP in 2022-23 to 3.45% in 2023-24. It rose from Rs 25,554 crore to Rs 40,661 crore. Do these indicators suggest that the state is having a sunrise economy?” he asked.
New announcements at budget discussion
Allocation for Civil Supplies raised to Rs 2,001 crore
Rs 5 crore for international cultural complex
Rs 5 crore for science city
Rs 3 crore for cultural survey
Rs10 crore for campus industrial parks
Rs 5 crore for Malappuram KSRTC bus stand
Rs 7 crore for 16 nursing colleges