The Hindu : Front Page : Rs.100 crores for Vision 2010 projects

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 09, 2005

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Rs.100 crores for Vision 2010 projects

Special Correspondent

Discussions under way on aid from Centre

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister Vakkom Purushothaman said here on Tuesday that Rs.100 crores would be allocated for Vision 2010 projects this year.

Replying to questions at a press conference here, the Minister said the balance needed to be allotted only in the subsequent years. Discussions were under way on assistance from the Centre.

[The Cabinet had on November 1 discussed the reports of five task forces formed for finalising Vision 2010 at a special meeting. The Cabinet is understood to have approved the drafts, but the details have not been released on account of the model code of conduct because of the Thiruvananthapuram byelection.]

Mr. Purushothaman said that the Centre would provide about Rs.600 crores this year by way of compensating the losses from the introduction of value added system. Already, Rs.181 crores had been provided. The losses were on account of lower buoyancy (4 per cent) in tax revenues.

He said that the revenue from tax on lotteries had gone up to Rs. 22.42 crores during the first four months after enforcement of new laws. The increase was of Rs. 19.74 crores compared to the corresponding months last year.

Stressing that none would be allowed to operate illegal lotteries in the State, the Minister said that the responsibility to report sale of illegal lotteries to the Police and the Taxes Department would be entrusted to the Lotteries Department.

Mr. Purushothaman denied reports that the Government had not acted to check the sales of illegal lotteries. As soon as the Lotteries Department brought it to the Government's notice, cases had been registered. As many as 14 raids had been conducted so far.

He said that much of the adverse and false reports about the Government's failure to check illegal sales had its origins in the Lotteries Department. The Department officials were peeved by the shifting of responsibility for enforcement of laws on lotteries to the Taxes Department.

He would be convening a meeting of officials of the two departments up to the district level to ensure better coordination.

He said that it would be possible to avail a supplementary loan from the World Bank this year for the Kerala State Transport Project without exceeding the State's borrowing limit for the current year. The borrowing limit, fixed by the Centre, was Rs.5,386 crores.

He said that the treasury restrictions could be eased through better management of the finances.

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