Coming down heavily on the government for its decision to mobilise additional resources through ordinances and executive orders, CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan has said that the government was afraid to face the Assembly with its new taxation measures.
Inaugurating the 24-hour long sit-in by Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) activists in front of the Secretariat here on Friday to protest against the ‘recruitment freeze’ in State service, Mr. Balakrishnan said the government was resorting to ordinances and executive orders because it had no credible explanation to give to the people on why it was forced to go in for massive hikes in taxes, duties and user fees. “The government is making the people pay the price for its profligacy,” he said.
Mr. Balakrishnan said how could the government justify its additional resource mobilisation measures when no less a person than KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran had stated, after consultations with financial experts linked to the Congress, that out of the Rs.39,000 crore that the government received by way of arrears from various sources, Rs.23,000 crore could be easily collected. The government was unable to do this because it did not want to cancel the waivers that it had given to various sections and its commitments to various vested interests, Mr. Balakrishnan said.
The CPI(M) leader claimed that when the V.S. Achuthanandan government demitted office, the treasury had a surplus of Rs.2,800 crore. The Oommen Chandy government had wasted the entire money. Coupled with its failure to collect the taxes and other sums that were due to the government, the United Democratic Front regime had landed the State in a serious financial crisis. Now it was trying to wriggle out of the situation by enforcing a blanket freeze on fresh recruitment and placing a heavy tax burden on the people, he said.
