Kerala is staring at a grave financial crisis and to manage it, the government has notified the sale of its stocks and securities worth Rs 4000 crore. 

As per reports, the state treasury department is facing a deficiency of around Rs 2,500 crore for paying off pensions and welfare funds.

The Times of India quotes an official from the finance department as saying that the recently enforced GST has caused some issues with regard to collection of taxes and its benefits will be realised only by October.

“The government was forced to take the measure as the festival season is coming up. We had decided to clear arrears till August this year. There are many traders who still are not under the GST ambit. It will require some more time for the new tax structure to run smoothly. Added to this are the issues posed by lobbies of traders like poultry farmers who refused to reduce the price and put the poor consumer in a quandary.”

The report also says that reports by the panel and the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) had pointed out that there were serious flaws in the collection of GST from the business firms.

As per the CAG report, among the 20 lakh shops, only 3.85 lakh have registered under GST.

The report has also recommended surprise checks on the shops.

The ToI quotes Mary George, former member of Kerala Public Review Expenditure Committee ( KPREC) as saying that awareness campaigns should have been held by the government for traders and that local governing bodies should be entrusted with the task of such campaigns.

Apart from that, KPREC report also points out that the crusher units and quarries are functioning illegally in the state as they don’t pay taxes and also create environmental issues.