THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Finance Minister K M Mani engaged himself in a tight-rope walking exercise on Monday as he juggled Kerala’s development agenda with a revenue deficit that has risen to worrisome levels. But the biggest take-away from the budget for the politically sensitive state was the decision to raise the age of retirement for state employees from 55 to 56 years.Presenting the state budget 2012-13 amidst uproar from the Opposition benches about the portion pertaining to pension age being leaked to the media, Mani gave priority to infrastructure development projects. He made his point with Kochi Metro Rail (Rs 150 crore), High Speed Rail Corridor (Rs 50 crore) and Vizhinjam International Transshipment terminal (Rs 224 crore). He unfolded a slew of greenfield initiatives in high-tech farming such as greenhouse (Rs 45 crore), rice bio-park (Rs 10 crore) and coconut bio-park (Rs 15 crore).The Finance Minister has proposed to mop up Rs 1,512 crore by taxing tobacco products, liquor, motor vehicles and plastic bags. He announced a tax sop of Rs 100 crore mainly for products in health and agriculture sector; the allocation for various welfare schemes has been increased and asset development fund for MLAs with Rs 705 crore has been instituted.The estimated fiscal deficit for 2012-13 stood at Rs 10,727 cr (2.74 pc of GDP). The revised revenue deficit for 2011-12 stood at Rs 5,658 crore while the estimated budget deficit for the state for 2012-13 was pegged at Rs 3485.66 crore. In 2011-12 the total revenue receipts stood at Rs 39,401 crore while the expenditure was Rs 45,059 crore. For 2012-13, the budget has estimated revenue to the tune of Rs 48,120 crore and expenditure at Rs 51,605 crore.As soon as the budget session of the 13th Assembly began, Opposition Leader VS Achuthanandan stood up alleging that the state budget was leaked prior to the presentation in the Assembly and was published in a section of the newspapers. Kodiyeri Balakrishnan and the rest of the Opposition immediately joined in, shouting slogans and demanding that the House should adjourn and discuss the issue. Speaker G Karthikeyan intervened, assuring the Opposition that the matter would be looked into once the Finance Minister completed the presentation of the budget. “If it is indeed there in the budget (report in a section of media) then the House will examine it as per precedents set by Parliament and the Kerala Assembly,” Karthikeyan said
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