n keeping with his statements over the past few weeks, Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has delivered a Budget that has set ambitious targets in infrastructure and social sector development for 2017-18 and beyond.
The biggest push is for infrastructure and that is almost solely dependent on the funds that the Finance Minister hopes to mobilise through the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB). The Finance Minister expects the KIIFB to approve projects with a total outlay of ₹11,000 crore at its end March meeting, taking the total outlay of projects cleared by it to ₹15,000 crore. Another package of construction works worth ₹20,000 crore will be announced during 2017-18.
Work on the 1,267-km hill highway covering nine districts would begin during 2017-18 with the KIIFB investing ₹3,500 crore. Work on the 630-km coastal highway, with an outlay of ₹6,500 crore, would also begin in the coming year. The two projects would be financed through a special chit scheme for non-resident Indians. The target is to get at least one-lakh NRIs to join the chit scheme in the first year and raise ₹10,000 crore through bonds to be issued by the KIIFB with government guarantee as part of the chit scheme to be operated by Kerala State Financial Enterprises (KSFE). The KIIFB would also invest ₹5,628 crore for construction of 182 roads across the State.
In the social sector, the Finance Minister has proposed massive investment of ₹2,000 crore to upgrade the facilities in district and taluk hospitals, creation of 5,257 posts, including 1,309 posts of doctors and 1,610 staff nurses and making 45,000 school classrooms hi-tech. He also hiked welfare pensions by ₹100 to ₹1,100, proposed insurance cover for those aged above 60 years, who do not have more than two acres of land and do not pay income tax. He restored Gender Budgeting and announced a string of schemes aimed at welfare and protection of women.
The Budget, which has no taxation proposal in view of the impending rollout of the Goods and Services Tax, envisages a year-end deficit of ₹1,688.42 crore.
