Finance minister Dr TM Thomas Isaac to unveil 8th Budget today
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: When finance minister T.M. Thomas Isaac makes his eighth Budget speech at 9 am on March 3, he will be unveiling his strategy to combat the most formidable fiscal challenge he has ever faced. Never before have state's own revenues been in such a mess; it was growing only in single digit figures since Dr Isaac had taken over, and went minus for the first time in decades after demonetisation. Plan fund expenditure, too, is abysmally low; with just one month more to go for the end of the fiscal it is lower than at any fiscal during the last UDF tenure.
But Dr Isaac is no conservative, he is a congenital risk-taker. He himself had said that 2017-18 would witness the most bloated revenue deficit ever. This is a clear sign that Dr Isaac's plan is to out-spend the crisis. He will heat up expenditure like never before to beat the demonetisation blues, to revive the farming, fisheries and dairy sectors and the traditional industries. Social welfare spending, too, will be greatly enhanced to stoke demand for petty traders.
For the first time in the state's history, a finance minister will be placing a 'gender document' along with other budget documents. However this time, unlike the former seven times when he got up to make his speech, Dr Isaac's powers will be considerably depleted. A state finance minister's biggest weapon, his power to tinker with indirect taxes, has been taken away by GST. Ironically, GST will be Isaac’s biggest hope of a revival in the state's fortunes.