An August 21 report by rating agency Care Ratings had said that in the backdrop of the floods, the state’s GDP growth was expected to fall to 6.5-7% from the budgeted 7.6% in FY 2019. The services sector, including the tourism sector, as well as the agricultural sector with major losses to plantation crops like coconut and banana, had all been hit hard by the floods. Nearly 500 people have died in the floods, thousands of homes submerged.
Post the floods, the Kerala government was allowed by the Centre to impose a 1% cess on the GST for two years to deal with the calamity.
One of the major highlights of the budget that Isaac will present on Thursday will be a comprehensive universal primary health care programme aimed at covering 50 per cent of the population. This will be notwithstanding the Ayushman Bharat health insurance program of the Centre that Kerala has agreed to adopt.
“It is going to be an important programme. A universal free primary healthcare topping it up with a universal health assurance model which will cover about 50% of the population. Then, about rest 20-30% can voluntarily pay the premium and join because the aggregation makes the premiums much low,” he said.
The Left-ruled Kerala government and the BJP-led Centre had wrangled on the subject of rolling out the Ayushman Bharat scheme in the state. Isaac, then and now, has criticized the modalities of the ambitious programme.
“Ayushman Bharat has two components. One, they want to set up a primary health care system for which there is no additional money. But Kerala has been spending money. Second, if we are going to expand on the existing insurance scheme in secondary and tertiary sectors, we will require a minimum of R’s 1000 crores. But Centre is providing only Rs 100 crores, so what are they claiming so much credit for?” Isaac argued.
He said his government has agreed to adopt the existing program to fall within the framework of the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
On attracting investments and improving the state’s position on the Ease of Doing Business rankings, the finance minister said he was confident that results would begin to show in the next two years as the government has started taking serious note of reforming certain practices.
‘We are getting into single window clearance and land acquisition programmes. At least two dozen corporate investments, especially in the knowledge sector, are coming to Kerala, ‘ he said.
With the interim Budget scheduled to be presented just a day after Isaac’s budget, he said it is very likely that in an election year, the government at the Centre would use it to announce sops.
“They are not going to be judged by what they did because that track record is really bad. I’m expecting that they will have to do some basic income support scheme. Or something for farmers because the rural sector is in turmoil,” said Isaac.
Source : https://indianexpress.com/article/india/keralas-fiscal-situation-bad-post-floods-will-go-for-an-expansive-budget-finance-minister-thomas-isaac/
