Thiruvananthapuram: After weeks of uncertainty, the Union Government informed that the state's borrowing limit is Rs 20,521 crores for the current financial year. 

In the fiscal year, the government had been expecting a total borrowing limit of Rs 32,442 crore, which is 3 per cent of the GSDP. 

Meanwhile, the government is likely to move the Supreme Court against the Centre's decision to slash the state's borrowing limit from three per cent to two per cent of the state GDP.

The present thought of going forward with a legal tiff with the Centre comes at a time when the total debt of Kerala was Rs 1,86,453.86 crore in 2016-17 and has risen to Rs 3,35,641.15 crore in 2021-22. 

Earlier, the CPM government said the Union government's decision to cut down the borrowing limit of Kerala by half was an  "attempt to suffocate the state" by any means necessary. 

The Centre has slashed the borrowing limit to Rs 20,521 crores after including the borrowings of Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and Kerala Social Security Pension Ltd (KSSPL), and other loans under public accounts in the state's kitty. On Thursday, the Centre informed that the state's public accounts stood at Rs 13,177 crores. 

Last month, there was a heated exchange between the state and the central government when the latter announced that Kerala's borrowing limit is Rs 15,390 crores. However, the state raised a crucial question about whether the borrowing limit applied for the entire fiscal year or only for the first 9 months of the financial year.

Following this, Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Muraleedharan claimed that Kerala was allowed to borrow Rs 55,182 crore in the financial year 2023-24 and out of that, the state has already taken around Rs 34,661 crore, leaving a balance of Rs 20,521 crore from which Rs 15,390 crore has been sanctioned for the first three quarters of the financial year. 

Unsure about the claims made by the BJP leader, the LDF government has decided to seek details from the Centre regarding the same. 

Distraught by Centre's decision, former Finance Minister Thomas Isaac Isaac in his Facebook post remarked that the only option left is going the legal way as all other options have been exhausted.

"A letter regarding this was sent to the Prime Minister and the response is in no way acceptable and hence decks are getting cleared for one of Independent India's legal battles concerning the concept of federalism," wrote Isaac.