The CP(I)M-led Kerala government, which will come out with its own budget on Friday, feels let down by the Union Budget presented to Parliament on Wednesday by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman, saying it had ignored the State’s pet demands on infrastructure and fiscal policy.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan termed it a pro-corporate document that ignores the growing fiscal and regional imbalances. Finance Minister KN Balagopal said the Centre had neglected the State’s demand on fiscal policy.
Leader of the Opposition VD Satheesan charged the Centre with ignoring workers, small traders, farmers and the self-employed, and strangling job guarantee schemes.
To examine proposals
The Chief Minister said the State government would examine the Budget proposals of the Centre in detail and tap into schemes that are perceived useful.
But he doubted the motive of plans to change the financing pattern of some schemes from ‘input-based’ to ‘outcome-based’ and to establish cooperatives in panchayats and villages. These amounted to transgression into the State’s terrain, he said.
But he found merit in announcements concerning an Agriculture Accelerator Fund to encourage rural start-ups in the farm sector and the digital public infrastructure for developing farmer-centric solutions as they appear to sync with the State’s vision.
Gains from the ₹2.4-lakh crore allocation for Railways and the ‘Green Growth’ programmes bear some watching, he added.
GST compensation period
The State government feels badly let down since no extension has been granted to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) compensation period, or for that matter, a demand for a ‘flexible pool’ for Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and a State-friendly approach to Cess and surcharges collected by the Centre.
It also wanted a revision in the shareable portion of GST from 50:50 to 60:40 in favour of the States and to enhance the CSS Centre-State sharing pattern from 60:40 to 75:25.
No AIIMS-level institute
Meanwhile, an overall departmental allocation of ₹12,543 crore has been set apart for the Department of Space facilities in Thiruvananthapuram-Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), and the ISRO Inertial Systems Unit (IISU). The National Centre for Earth Science Studies (NCESS) has been allocated ₹16 crore.
The Chief Minister is cut up that the demand for an All India Institute of Medical Sciences-equivalent medical institute and a special package for the economic rehabilitation of ‘return emigrants’ have not found a place in the Union Budget.
It also appeared to have ignored the State government’s appeal for support to its Ayyankali Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme.