Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan with Finance Minister KN Balagopal | Photo: Mathrubhumi
Thiruvananthapuram: The financial crisis faced by Kerala is likely to aggravate, suggests the Planning Board’s Draft Approach Paper readied as a prelude to the five-year plan.
The document flags about the challenges while listing out measures for resource pooling.
The report of the 15th Finance Commission for 2021-26 readied by the union government had said that in the taxes shared between states, Kerala’s portion will reduce from 2.5 per cent to 1.92 per cent.
Amid this comes the revelations from the Draft Approach Paper. According to the document, the revenue deficit grant for Kerala may become void in 2023-24 period and the availability of GST compensation is less likely after June 2022.
Moreover, the mandate which limits the states capacity to avail debt to three per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) will put Kerala in troubled waters.
Though the amount to be allocated for the 14th Five-year Plan has not yet been decided, it is estimated that it will be around Rs 2.15 lakh crores based on the 13th Five-year Plan.
According to the document, the growth of GSDP is expected to rise by 11 per cent in three years, post the implementation. While non-tax revenue is expected to rise by 10 per cent and own revenue is estimated to increase by 12.7 per cent.
Agriculture marketing, deep sea fishing, mining policy, reducing traffic in road, implementation of semi-high speed rail line are some recommendations in the document.