Finance Minister TM Thomas Isaac on Thursday painted a bleak picture of the State government’s financial position, warning of a looming crisis and blaming it on the profligacy of the previous Oommen Chandy government.

Presenting a white paper on the finances of the government in the State Assembly, Thomas Isaac said the public debt stood at an alarming ₹1.5 trillion. The debt doubled over the past five years when the Congress-led United Democratic Front was in power, he said.

‘Profligacy’ Isaac, a former professor of economics, said the previous government had recklessly borrowed money and spent it uneconomically. It had announced a series of mega projects without budgetary allocations. It was also lax on tax collection and failed to improve tax mobilisation.

He said the one-month-old LDF government now needed around ₹10,000 crore immediately to pay the bills unpaid for by the previous government.

Isaac said the government would try to bring the finances back on track by improving tax mobilisation and plugging the loopholes in tax collection. The tax collection machinery will be energised and the government is aiming for a growth of 20-25 per cent in tax revenue, he said.

Mani’s rebuttal Former Finance Minister KM Mani, however, denied the charges. He dubbed Isaac’s white paper as a ‘black paper’ as it had mainly aimed to blame the previous government for the current financial situation.

Mani claimed that when the UDF government stepped down last month, there was a surplus of more than ₹1000 in the public exchequer.

Isaac countered that the surplus was the result of the UDF keeping bills unpaid for two months.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW