Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has accused both Left Democratic Front (LDF) and United Democratic Front (UDF) of turning Kerala into one of the five fiscally stressed States in the country. Fiscal mismanagement of the State’s finances is the greatest tragedy faced by the people of Kerala, she added.
The Union Minister also accused the LDF government of driving investors away and pushing the State towards de-industrialisation, while inaugurating National Democratic Alliance (NDA)’s Thiruvananthapuram Parliament election convention as part of its candidate Rajeev Chandrasekhar’s campaign here on Thursday.
Ms. Sitharaman said the State government has far exceeded its permitted borrowing limit of 3% and has resorted to extra-budgetary borrowing to the tune of ₹42,285 crore for six years from 2016-17. The borrowings are being made through entities such as Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB) that have no revenue sources of their own. Besides such borrowings are not cleared by the Kerala Assembly.
