Kerala has been facing severe financial crisis and therefore sought Centre’s assistance to tackle the crisis. According to a report in Kerala Kaumudi, the state’s finance minister KN Balagopal met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in New Delhi and requested to disburse an emergency assistance of Rs 6835 crore and also asked permission to borrow another Rs 4060 crore.
The minister presented the financial crisis faced by the state before the Centre, and also requested to relax the criteria for determining the loan limit.
With the Centre changing the criteria for granting permission to borrow money, the state was unable to borrow more.
Since the loans taken by KIIFB and Social Security pension limited are not directly taken by the government, they should not be included in the public debt of the state and the loan sanction limit should be increased as the other debt has decreased to Rs 7813.06 crore.
Also, in view of the good performance in the energy sector, additional borrowing of Rs 4060 crore should be allowed, demanded minister Balagopal.
The minister also requested to immediately sanction Rs 6835 crore to the state which includes several other funds.
Balagopal has requested to grant Rs 1548 crore which is to be received as GST compensation and also that the GST compensation be allowed for another five years.