15 March 2013, 12:45 PM IST
To give shape and present 11 budgets of a state government is more than a mere statistic - it is an achievement. May be such an achiever should be called Mr Money, rather than K M Mani. On Friday morning, Mani presented the state budget in Kerala assembly, his revenge on the state's coalition politics that thwarted his unconcealed ambition of becoming the chief minister. He is only 81. And there are two more budgets he can present, if the Oommen Chandy government survives the five-year term.
Sadly, Mani has not proposed any bold, imaginative steps that befit his experience to lift the state out of the fiscal morass. What he has done, again, is merely slice the revenue cake.
I am particularly interested in two grand gestures of the finance minister. He has proposed to ensure that Kerala will be soon turning into a state where everyone will hold a piece of land. As in other parts of the globe, Kerala's land area will not grow but its population will. How is he going to ensure such a populist scheme? What's the need for such a step when there are already 10 lakh vacant flats in Kerala? May be Mani is going to reclaim land from the Arabian Sea.
Interestingly he has proposed to set up LPG crematoriums in all the 14 districts. If you can't become a landlord, at least you can be assured of a dignified burial in Kerala.
Now, the secret of Mani's budget XI is that he takes care of people. So he increases the pension for journalists by 65% from 4,500 to 7,000. Mani also increases housing subsidy for journalists by 100% from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1 lakh. I am yet to figure out the eligibility criteria for the same. But why should journalists receive pension from the state government? Shouldn't they turn down it when the government gives Rs 700 as pension for widows and the handicapped and Rs 500 for farmers? Such sums are a joke in this stage and age. If welfare schemes are not meaningful, it is time we scrapped it.
The finance minister in his long winding speech has allocated the state revenue for all interest groups, ranging from press clubs (Thrissur and Kottayam press clubs to get Rs 15 lakh each), to memorials and statues of various cultural leaders (O V Vijayan memorial in Thasrak gets Rs 15 lakh) and centenary celebrations and religious discourses.
In another dodgy proposal, the FM has mooted a marriage fund for women. He has not spelt out what's the criteria for the beneficiaries. Are women from all religious, caste backgrounds eligible for this? It is important to note that the FM has not set aside any amount for the marriage fund but threatened to impose 3% surcharge on the expenditure of ornate weddings. In a state where all weddings are a feast of black money, I don't know how Mani would get his 3%.
By now it has become fashionable for finance ministers to please farmers and announce interest waivers on loans. Mani, too, has done it.
Remarkably, the FM said the state revenue went up by 20% in the last fiscal year. It is still a surprise in a state where men wash away their sorrows and sweat in liquor. Mani has fallen back on traditional avenues to mop up revenue for his please-all schemes. The FM is targeting Rs 250 crore from the sale of tobacco products and Rs 500 crore from the sale of liquor. Tax on Indian Made Foreign Liquor has been hiked from 100% to 105%, with beer and wine drinkers raising a toast to Mani for sparing them.
The state's fiscal health, by all accounts, is far from rosy. The FM himself was struggling to complete his speech. And these days budget speeches without 'quotable quotes' is like a Harold Robbins novel without sex. Mani quoted Lord Krishna from the Gita and reminded Malayalis that they cannot wait and expect outside support on a battlefield but should fight for themselves and lift themselves out of the financial bog.
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