THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Assembly on Monday referred the Kerala Finance Bill, 2011 to the subject committee for consideration, in the absence of the Opposition which boycotted the Assembly for the second time on the same day.Replying to the discussions on the Bill, Finance Minister K M Mani told the Assembly that there was an increase of 19 percent in the state’s tax revenue in the last six months. The tax income increased despite the fact that the State Government had waived the additional sales tax worth Rs 397 crore.He said the increase from the non-VAT revenue was 18 percent. He also said that though there had been an instruction not to levy tax on those who had opted to pay compound tax, further discussions could be held during the subject committee meeting in this regard. He said 1,139 new registrations were made on the basis of 4,329 street surveys.The minister said the per capita debt of Keralites was Rs 23,564 whereas the national average was Rs 10,018. The total accumulated debt of the state was Rs 78,663 crore. He said the previous government’s financial mismanagement had left the state in such a huge debt trap. He also revealed that the State Government had sought a central package to help the state wriggle out of the debt trap.Thomas Isaac’s efforts to rake up the issue of the government allowing statutory bodies and local self-governments to avail of the banking services of new generation banks such as the ICICI, HDFC, and Axis Bank created ruckus in the Assembly, resulting in the Opposition’s walk out.Isaac once again reminded Mani that he had taken a wrong decision to disburse the salary and pensionary benefits of the government employees through the new generation banks.He claimed that the State Government would be losing deposit worth Rs 5,000 crore at the rate of 0.5 percent interest from the treasury saving account. But the Finance Minister said the Opposition was making baseless allegations.He warned Isaac that he would move a privilege motion against him if he continued to level the allegations. He said the GO-7013, allowing statutory bodies and local bodies to avail the services of new generation banks, had nothing to do with the disbursal of salaries of the employees.He reiterated that the government order was to disburse the salaries and pensionary benefits only through public sector banks. He further clarified that GO-7013 was issued on the basis of the Central Government circular and an RBI guideline.Coming down heavily on Thomas Isaac, Mani said Isaac had announced an anti-recession package of Rs 10,000 crore in the 2009-10 budget, and only Rs 86 crore was allocated for this. But administrative sanctions were given to projects by 2,000 percent compared to the amount allocated.
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