Kerala: Finance Minister KN Balagopal to present state budget today
Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal will present the state budget for the year 2024-25 on Monday (Feb 05) at 9 am in the Assembly. This is the third complete budget since the second Pinarayi government assumed office.
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FollowThiruvananthapuram: Finance Minister KN Balagopal will present the state budget for the year 2024-25 today at 9 am in the Assembly, while the state is going through a severe economic crisis. This is the third complete budget since the second Pinarayi government assumed office. The budget looks ahead to the announcements ahead of the Lok Sabha elections and the way to generate additional revenue. The indication is that there will be steps to promote private investment. It is expected that the budget will at least address issues such as welfare pension arrears, a decline in tax revenue, the crisis in the agriculture sector, and DA arrears of employees and pensioners.
On Saturday, K N Balagopal maintained that the public will appreciate the next state budget. He says that the strategy is to boost revenue, which has been struggling with purported financial constraints from the Centre. Speaking to the media, Balagopal stated that while the union government's financial strangling of the Left government has limited its ability, Kerala's progress and accomplishments will be the focus of the upcoming budget.
“The public will appreciate the upcoming budget which is aimed at increasing the revenue of the state. However, the government has its limitations. But the people have faith in the government that we will do everything for them and the state,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kerala will soon experience a severe financial crisis, the central government told the Supreme Court, citing the state's rising interest payments on its debt. The state government's borrowing partners, Kerala Social Security Pension Limited and KIIFB, have no independent sources of revenue, according to a note the central government submitted to the Supreme Court. Along with Punjab and Bengal, Kerala is the state with the worst fiscal management in the country. It stated that borrowing was 31 percent of the GDP in 2018-2019 and increased to 39 percent in 2021-22.
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