No money has been spent on development of the state, Nirmala Sitharaman claimed (File)
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala:
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday said that Kerala is one of the top five financially stressed states in India according to the Reserve Bank of India, claiming that this was due to the poor governance of the successive UDF and LDF governments in the region. stands.
The Union Finance Minister alleged that there has been ‘persistent’ poor fiscal management by both the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) – both of which are always on were the power. in the state.
She also said that in the last six years, since 2016-17, the Kerala government has far exceeded its permissible borrowing limit of 3 per cent and resorted to extra-budgetary borrowing to the tune of over Rs 42,000 crore.
Nirmala Sitharaman said these off-budget loans were being executed through entities like Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and Kerala Social Security Pension Company Ltd, which have no revenue of their own.
“Since they have no income of their own and cannot repay the loans, who should repay them? It must be repaid from the public treasury. This means that the people of Kerala will ultimately have to pay for it,” the minister said after inaugurating the loan. The NDA’s BJP-led Lok Sabha poll conference here.
Despite this, no money has been spent on the development of the state, she alleged.
The union minister also said that while the UPA government was in power at the Center and there were eight ministers from Kerala, the state got only Rs 46,303 crore in tax decentralization and around Rs 25,000 crore in aid grants between 2004 and 2014.
However, from 2014 to February 29, 2024, the Narendra Modi government gave the state Rs 1,55,649 crore in tax decentralization and Rs 1,58,983 crore in subsidies even though there were no ministers from Kerala, she said. .
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