Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has strongly criticised the Union Budget, stating that it did not include any measures to address increasing inequality. He also alleged that the Budget would give a boost to the appropriation of assets by corporates. The Chief Minister also said that the Budget did not follow an approach of regional balance, hours after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Budget for the financial year 2023-24 on Wednesday, February 1.
CM Pinarayi in an official statement stated that the Budget was disappointing for Kerala, as it did not fulfil the long-pending demand to establish an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in the state, and also made no mention of development of railways in the state.
"The fiscal deficit of the Union government will be 6.4% [in 2022-23]. For the states that have been struggling with the impact of COVID-19, it should be at least 4%. This has not been considered. There are indications in the Budget about the scores of conditions for giving interest-free loans to states for meeting the capital expenditure. This is against the principles of cooperative federalism. It has been found in studies that inequality has been on the rise in several countries including India. But there is no suggestion to levy taxes on the filthy rich,” read a statement from the CM.
The Chief Minister also urged the Union government to correct the reduction in the allocation for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Program should be corrected. "In the year 2021-22, Rs 98,467.85 crore was spent for the programme. The amount spent in 2022-23 was Rs 89,400 crore, as per the revised estimate. In the budget for 2023-24, the amount allocated is Rs 60,000 crore. Such a drastic reduction in the budget allocation for an important Union government envisaged scheme should be corrected," the statement read.
The CM also dismissed the nominal increase in allocations for the health sector. In the budget for 2023-24, the health sector has been allocated Rs 89,155 crore, a hike of around 13% over Rs 79,145 crore allocated in FY 2022-23.
The opposition Congress in the state has also slammed the budget, calling it a gimmick with figures. Opposition leader VD Satheesan said that the MGNREGA has been strangled in the budget by the Union government. "The budget has not mentioned those who were hit badly by COVID-19. "There is no announcement for them in the budget for small scale industries, workers, self-employed people and farmers. The Union government has no statistics on the people below poverty line for the last ten years. The budget turned a blind eye towards the reality that unemployment became severe during the post pandemic period. There are no schemes in the budget to address unemployment or to check inflation," read the statement from the opposition leader.