BJP terms budget ‘anti-people’

KOZHIKODE: Describing the revised budget proposals presented by Kerala Finance Minister T M Thomas Isaac to the Assembly as ‘anti-people and disappointing,’ the BJP said it was another severe jolt to the common man, already hit hard by the recent hike in prices of petroleum products.

The proposed new tax structure 2006-07 would be another blow to the common man, reeling under spiralling prices of essential commodities caused by increase in tariff of petroleum products, party Kerala president P S Sreedharan Pillai told reporters here.

Saying the proposals were almost a ditto copy of that presented by the previous UDF government, he said there was no adequate allocation for developmental projects or creation of new job avenues.

‘The previous budget proposals were presented by Vakkom Purushothaman and now it is Thomas Isaac. That is the only difference,’ he lamented.

The Malabar Chamber of Commerce (MCC) said the Rs 716.56 crore deficit budget presented by the new LDF government was ‘totally disappointing.’ The deficit would go up if the government failed to recover taxes as planned, the MCC said in a release.

It said though the proposals envisioned 10 per cent growth, adequate allocation had not been made for industrial development in the state.

The government, which promised to boost the tourism sector in Malabar region allocated only Rs one crore for the Bekal tourism project against an estimated Rs 1,000 crore, it said.

The proposals to levy tax by deviating from Value Added Tax (VAT) norms was against the interests of trade and industry as a whole, said the Calicut Chamber of Commerce and Industry.