Coming down heavily on the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) government for its poor financial management, Governor P. Sathasivam has said that the State is experiencing an ‘acute financial crisis’ and that the government is faced with the ‘unenviable task’ of steering the State out of it.
Delivering his first policy address for the newly formed LDF government in the Assembly on Friday, Mr. Sathasivam said that implementation of the annual Plan approved by the Assembly had ‘virtually stagnated’ from 2013 to 2016.
“Against the large number of schemes announced in the annual Plan budgets of the three years, actual expenditure has been only 60-70 per cent of the budget approved by the legislature. This, in particular, has had a negative impact on public investments in Kerala, and has adversely hit poorer sections of society,” he said.
The Governor said this had also severely impeded the overall economic growth, income, and employment generation in the State. The entire borrowing ceiling now permitted by the Central government was just sufficient to meet the day-to-day expenditure of the State government.
Consequently, the government was faced with the stark reality of being left with no funds for capital expenditure such as construction of roads, bridges, and other major infrastructure projects.