A meeting of the Kerala State Cabinet has decided that budget for 2022-23 may be presented on March 11 during the course of a two-phase session beginning with the Governor’s Address to the Assembly on February 18. 

The meeting approved the text of the Governor’s Address. The House will adjourn after passing the Motion of Thanks to and reconvene during the second week of March. It will not sit during the period from February 25 to March 10.

Raised borrowing limit

Meanwhile, the proposal in the Union Budget to raise the borrowing limit to four per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) augurs well for the State reeling under the double whammy of back-to-back floods and the pandemic.

As per recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission, 0.5 per cent of the increased borrowing limit is tied to reforms in the power sector. B Ashok, Chairman of power utility KSEB Ltd, said said that the State has already complied with the reform and submitted a report to the Centre. 

The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act had limited the borrowings by States to three per cent of the GSDP. States were provided a slight relaxation during the pandemic by tying an extra 0.25 per cent of borrowings to power reforms. The borrowing limit has now been been raised to four per cent.

Earlier, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Finance Minister KN Balagopal had faulted the Centre for ‘leaving the State disappointed’ after the Union Budget was presented on February 1. Its demands for an AIIMS-model medical institute and support for the SilverLine semi high-speed rail project remained unaddressed. Sector-specific packages sought for agriculture and MSME as well as for NRI returnees too had been ignored.

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