India News | Fiscal Crisis: Congress Rubbishes 'non-cooperation' Charges Levelled by Kerala FM Against Its MPs

Kottayam (Kerala), Aug 19 (PTI) The Congress on Saturday termed as "strange" the charges of non-cooperation levelled by Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal against its MPs in getting deserved allocations from the Centre, and said he was trying to cover up his own incompetence by raising baseless allegations.

Categorically rejecting the minister's charge that none of the Congress-led UDF MPs had gone to submit a memorandum to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman detailing the state's demands, the grand old party said they were not invited by him for the purpose.

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There was no need for any UDF MPs to go for handing over the memorandum without any proper invitation, Leader of Opposition in the state Assembly V D Satheesan said here.

"The state Finance Minister's allegation that the non-cooperation by the UDF MPs in submitting a complaint to the Centre is the cause of the state's financial crisis is strange," he told reporters.

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At the onset, it should be made clear why the Centre was denying funds to the state, he said.

The LoP further said the opposition had warned several times inside and outside the Assembly that thousands of crores of rupees borrowed outside the state budget for the Kerala State Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) and pension fund would finally come under the budget limit.

The alarming financial position of the state was also mentioned in the White Papers released by the Congress-UDF recently, he pointed out.

"The current fiscal crisis is due to the state government's mismanagement and failure in collecting taxes," Satheesan alleged.

When GST came to existence, all states had changed their tax collection system but Kerala was reluctant to do it and so the state had no tax revenue now, he further charged.

The southern state should have received the highest tax revenue through GST but it receives only less than 10 per cent now, he said and alleged that though tax collection is less, extravagance and corruption are high in the state.

The mismanagement and indiscriminate borrowing outside the budget during the time of the first Pinarayi Vijayan government have pushed the state to the present financial crisis, Satheesan said.

But still the government was trying to blame the opposition MPs for the same, the Congress leader said adding that Balagopal had no idea how to tackle the situation.

Balagopal on Friday had attacked the Centre for reducing the state's tax share and borrowing limit, and accused opposition UDF MPs of not cooperating with the Kerala government to get the deserved benefits from the Union government.

He alleged that the Centre is trying to impose economic sanctions on Kerala and that the UDF MPs, led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who represents Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha seat, are doing nothing for the state.

Though the UDF MPs had agreed to stand united on the financial issues being faced by the state, none of them agreed to meet Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and sign the memorandum to be submitted to her recently, the minister alleged.

During the recent MPs conference convened by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here, the Congress parliamentarians had assured all support to stand united to protect the interests of the state, he said.

But neither the 18 Lok Sabha MPs of the UDF nor their Rajya Sabha colleagues turned up to meet the Union Finance Minister to apprise her of Kerala's financial position and to pressure her to release the state's dues, Balagopal had charged.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)