The Revised Budget (Alteration Memorandum) presented by the Kerala Finance Minister, Mr K. M. Mani, on Friday has proposed to bring down the cumulative deficit by more than a half from February's vote-on-account authored by the predecessor Government.
Coming up with a record ninth Budget, Mr Mani has proposed a cumulative deficit of Rs 350.27 crore (Rs 730.67 crore as of February) even while being seen as spending more (Rs 982.73 crore against Rs 753.41 crore).
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
He has achieved this by proposing additional resources mobilisation of Rs 615.75 crore (nil in February) but without bringing undue pain to the common man.
Instead, he has gone on to propose new luxury tax imposts, which include a cess of two per cent on tax for luxury cars with a tag of Rs 20 lakh and above; two per cent cess on building tax on residential houses of 4,000 sq ft and more to realise Rs 5 crore; a 20 per cent tax on chewing tobacco (Rs 5 crore); a six per cent social security cess on sales of Indian-made foreign liquor (Rs 135 crore).
In another masterstroke, the withdrawal of exemption of five per cent surcharge on sales of IMFL from Kerala State Beverages Corporation granted in 2004 when the public sector unit was incurring a loss has now been lifted.
Along with this, the original 10 per cent surcharge is sought to be brought to bear on this head of account, which is expected to rake in another Rs 192 crore, Mr Mani said.
He has announced technical exemptions and simplification of procedures for those assessed under the presumptive tax regime as well as for the larger trading community.
In a speech critical of the flawed budgetary management practices perpetrated by the previous Government, Mr Mani took predecessor Dr Thomas Isaac to task.
He was faulted for illogical number-crunching and presumptive effort at locating resources that have resided largely in the realm of imagination, if not entirely giving in to the temptation of speculating, pure and simple.
Mr Mani claimed he is being much more practical and level-headed to propose a set of numbers with a ring of realism and level headedness about it.
VITAL STATISTICS
The revenue receipts stand revised upwards to Rs 39,427.51 crore (Rs 38,546.89 crore) even while the revenue expenditure is shown as going up by a tad to Rs 44,961.42 crore (Rs 44,566.33 crore).
Revenue deficit as a percentage of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) has been brought down to 1.81 per cent from 1.97 per cent as of February.
Similarly, developmental expenditure stands revised to Rs 28,646 crore from Rs 29,872 crore. Fiscal deficit is as well looking down a tad from Rs 10,641 crore to Rs 10,507 crore (3.48 per cent to 3.43 per cent).
MORE CAPEX
Mr Mani has also managed to go the extra mile in being able to commit more than what Dr Isaac has been able to under the crucial head of capital expenditure (Rs 3,814.69 crore against Rs 2,910.13 crore).
The loans and advances (net) head too looks less heavy this time round (Rs 1,158.38 crore as against Rs 1,711.38 crore) as does the public account (net) (Rs 2,554.15 crore against Rs 2,694.15 crore).