THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Describing the 2006-07 Budget presented in the Assembly on Friday as `one crafted with an eye on the upcoming Assembly elections,' the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) has questioned the fiscal rationale of several promises and proposals and raised serious doubts about the actual size of the State's outstanding public debt.

Giving their initial reaction to the Budget immediately after its presentation in the Assembly, the LDF leaders said the general tenor of the Budget was nothing different from the `India Shining' campaign that the BJP-led NDA had unleashed prior to the 2004 Lok Sabha elections hiding the real face of the Indian economy.

They also termed several of the figures given in the Budget contrary to the actual situation and cited the public debt figure given by Finance Minister Vakkom Purushothaman as a major case in point.

`Financial jugglery'

CPI(M) deputy legislature party leader Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, leading the Opposition in the absence of his senior party colleague V. S. Achuthanandan, accused the Finance Minister of having indulged in financial jugglery to show a lower public debt and said the actual figure at the end of the current fiscal (2005-'06) would be Rs.47,791 crores and that this would go up to Rs.54,620 crores when 2006-'07 ends.

The Finance Minister, he pointed out, had also not included in the Budget any amount to compensate the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB) for the concession granted to domestic consumers and commercial consumers 20 paise a unit of power a month despite the Government having assured the State Electricity Regulatory Commission that the loss would be compensated by it.

Similarly, only Rs.10 crores has been earmarked for the Vizhinjam Deep Sea Container Transshipment Terminal though the Government was supposed to plough in Rs.170 crores for the purpose in the coming year.

He said that since no specific allocation had been made in the Budget, it could be safely assumed that the Government did not intend to go in for pay revision for State employees and teachers.

They employees and teachers also stand to lose because no allocation had been made to clear the Rs.500-crore arrears in medical reimbursement claims. Sufficient amount had also not been earmarked to clear the arrears of Government contractors. The budget was silent on the revival of traditional industries.

The UDF had come to power promising a Rs.500-crore fund for the purpose. It had set apart Rs.50 crores in the 2002-'03 Budget and released just Rs.5 crores.

The pension scheme for agricultural workers promised in the Budget means little because the UDF would pay only the first instalment of Rs.500, he pointed out.

Plantation sector revival

K.P. Rajendran (CPI) wanted to know how a Government that says that it cannot implement the existing agricultural workers' pension scheme implement a new scheme for the same category of people.

He also regretted the absence of schemes in the Budget to revive the plantation sector where sickness and joblessness had become a major bane.

A. A. Aziz (RSP) said the Government's claims about the number of days of employment given by the Kerala State Cashew Development Corporation in the Governor's Address and the Budget varied sharply, the first putting the figure at 238 days and the Budget speaking of 207 days.

Cashew workers' pension was in arrears for the last 26 months, he added.

K. C. Joseph (KC-J) said the figures in the Budget were totally at variance with the actual facts and cited the Finance Minister's claim of having cleared the arrears due to PWD contractors when in reality the arrears was in excess of Rs.1,000 crores now.

A. C. Shanmughadas (NCP), P. C. George (KC-Secular) and C. K. Nanu (JD-S) also took part in the news conference.

Democratic Indira Congress (DIC) leader T. M. Jacob also cited the disparity in the Finance Ministers's claim about the State's public debt and the actual situation and said a close look at the figures would show that the Government had failed in its fiscal management as was evident from its failure in bringing down its revenue expenditure.

He also accused the Finance Minister of having misled the public with regard to the revenue from lottery and pointed out that the actual revenue should have been at least Rs.125 crores and not Rs.29 crores mentioned by him.

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