Mani's tenth budget

Agriculture allocation - Rs272 cr

The budget presented by Finance Minister Mr K.M. Mani called for shifting to hi-tech farming methods to extricate agriculture from perennial crisis and stagnation.

Describing agriculture as the mainstay of the state's economy, Mr Mani batted for hi-tech cultivation which would help farmers bypass the uncertainties caused by climate change.

Adoption of high-yielding varieties of seeds, controlled and efficient water usage, nutrient application, greenhouse farming, avoidance of over-dependence on soil were main points stressed by the Finance Minister in his budget presentation on Monday.

The budget made a provisioning of Rs 272 crore for the agriculture sector with bulk of the allocation, Rs 100 crore, set aside for integrated agriculture development projects involving paddy, cereals, vegetables and tubers.

The investment needed for setting up a greenhouse was projected at Rs 4.5 lakh. Greenhouses can be set up by agriculture societies, cooperatives or individual farmers.

A subsidy of 75 per cent will be provided by the central and state governments. The rest can be raised through bank loans or by the respective beneficiaries.

In each panchayat, three such greenhouses could be established. As the contribution from the state government, Rs 45 crore has been set apart for the project.

The finance minister also allocated Rs 50 crore for setting up agriculture super markets for effective marketing of agro products.

For setting up an International Research and Training centre for “below sea-level farming” at Kumarakam, Rs 10 crore has been allocated. The centre will be set up in association with the MS Swaminathan Foundation.

Mr Mani also said that the training centre would get financial assistance from global agencies.

Three coconut bio parks with an investment of Rs 15 crore and two rice bio parks for Rs 10 crore were the other major new announcements in the budget.

For the promotion of pineapple cultivation at Vazakkulam, Rs 1 crore has been provided.

Besides the above, coconut wood processing will get Rs 5 crore, organic farming Rs 10 crore and horticulture crops in the state Rs 11 crore.

Health allocation - Rs 470cr

Finance Minister K.M. Mani’s annual budget has given a healing touch to cardiac patients in the state.

Tax exemption for life saving equipment including heart valve and cardiac stent will be beneficial to thousands of heart patients in the state.

The finance minister has also announced tax exemption for intra ocular lens used in cataract surgery.

“Heart ailments in Kerala are on the increase when compared to other parts of the country. Considering the rise in the number of heart-related diseases, tax exemption for heart valve and cardiac stent is much appreciated,” said Dr. Anand Kumar, cardiologist of Lakeshore Hospital, Kochi.

The price of a cardiac stent ranges from Rs 20, 000 to Rs 1 lakh, out of which 4 per cent is the tax part. A heart valve costs Rs 50, 000 to Rs 1 lakh. Through tax exemption, a heart patient can save between Rs 2000 and Rs 4000.

Tax for standard medical equipment is fixed as 12 per cent while the tax for life saving equipment is 4 per cent.

According to the statistics available with Interventional Cardiology Council of Kerala, every year, nearly 6,000 heart patients undergo stent procedure in the state.

“Most of the patients come from lower strata of society who can’t afford the high expenses involved in cardiac treatment. For them, tax exemption of life saving equipment is a blessing,” added Dr. Kumar.

Home & fire services - Rs 12 cr

The sum of Rs 12 crore set aside by finance minister K.M. Mani towards strengthening fire fighting mechanisms is the highest that the Fire and Rescue Services Department has ever received in the state’s budget history.

However, for the densely populated state where land is scarce and vertical living has become a necessity, it’s far from sufficient.

The Palayam market fire episode leading to the assault on the district collector Dr. P.V. Salim by an irate crowd is, in fact, a warning.

“We’re happy to note that the government is at last waking up to the usefulness of our department by increasing the budgetary allocation.

Yet, we’re disappointed since this paltry sum won’t be enough to modernise our department," said a highly placed official from the fire department.

Pointing to the increasing number of fire episodes, the official said that outbreaks of fire were increasing, especially in high rise buildings. “You saw the fire that spread in the Joy Alukkas building. We’re ill-equipped to fight such fires,” he said.

The Joy Alukkas fire, in fact, had exposed the chinks in fire force’s armoury. Despite our best efforts, personnel from the fire force couldn’t do much for want of a sky-lift. Sky-lifts are a must in Kerala since they help better navigation particularly, in places where large fire engines can’t enter.

“As of now we don’t have even a single sky-lift in the state. Every district needs one sky-lift, particularly in Ernakula, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode,” the official opined.

A sky-lift costs over Rs.3 crore. And, the allocation of Rs.12 crore won’t be sufficient enough to buy even four sky-lifts. "If all the districts in the state are to be provided with sky-lifts it would
require a minimum of Rs.80 crore," the official said.

Education allocation - Rs 310 cr

Most of the announcements in the state budget for higher education are either reproductions or modifications of earlier projects.

The decision to conduct a global education meet to convert the state into an education hub was announced by the Education Minister in a press conference soon after the present government came to power. However, not a single paisa was earmarked for the meet.

The announcements for an academic city for providing courses of various international universities under a single umbrella and a knowledge city announced for Thodupzha for developing study and research in various fields of knowledge are two other announcements for higher education. The estimated cost for the two projects is Rs 25 lakh each.

Discussions on both were going on in the higher education sector in one form or the other for a long period.

The technical university was announced during the time of M.A. Baby, the Education Minister in the LDF Government.

The only new announcement regarding this was a budget estimate of Rs 1.5 crore.

State Government has submitted numerous memoranda to the Central Government for establishing an IIT in the state.

The only positive sign in the budget was that the Finance Minister earmarked Rs 5 crore for establishing an IIT at Palakkad. However,the Union HRD Ministry has not yet given clearance for this.

Waste management total allocation - Rs 230 cr

Solid waste management, a burning issue in the state, has been given due importance in finance minister K.M. Mani’s budget.

A major highlight is the allocation of Rs 100 crore towards preparatory works of setting up large, modern, solid waste treatment plants in Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Kottayam and Kozhikode, where solid waste management is a serious socio-environmental issue.

The plants will be constructed using the private public participation (PPP) model. The finance minister also allocated Rs 15 crore to the Thrissur and Kollam corporations for waste treatment.

During his budget speech, K.M. Mani said that the government aimed at promoting waste treatment at source and expanding kitchen gardens using compost.

The finance minister allocated Rs 100 crore towards the innovative project of treating waste at source.

All families in municipal and corporation areas will be included in this project as solid waste management is a grave issue in these areas. Subsidies will be provided for composting methods like pipe compost, bio gas plants or vermi compost.

The government will provide a subsidy of 75 per cent for the compost system while the local body will give a subsidy of 15 per cent. Rs 15 crore will be provided through the sanitation mission for setting up sewage treatment plants in selected districts.

As part of the efforts to implement zero waste, a green technology centre will be initiated in cooperation with the Centre for Earth Science Studies.

Another major recommendation made by the finance minister is to set up a large plastic shredding unit with the support of Malabar Cements.

This will address the health and environment hazards created by plastic waste. The shredded plastic will be used for road repair works, the minister said.

Tourism allocation - Rs 63 cr

It is a private-public participatory model that the government looks at to propel the tourism industry that has fetched the government a revenue of Rs17,000 crore. For this a Rs 15-crore allocation has been set aside to set up a tourism promotion board.

The Muziris tourism project that has already attracted global attention and the government proposes to make it a star tourism attraction of the state for which it has allocated Rs 7 crore. The Thalassery Heritage project is to be allotted Rs 2 crore.

Since these are frequented mostly by those from outside the state and abroad, the government aims at ensuring basic amenities of class and so has allotted Rs 53 crore though there is no mention of the sites that are to be get this benefit.

However, Wayanad, Kochi, Bekal, Kovalam and Kumarakom would get `1 crore each to be raised to international standards.

Another 50 tourist spots would be identified and Rs 3 crore has been allocated for a project aimed at having a waste-free tourism spot.

A hop-on and hop off scheme is to be initiated and to support local bodies, Rs 2 crore has been set aside for the responsible tourism initiative.

Aimed at supporting the tourism across Malabar, the government is to go ahead with the Eastern Corridor Eco-circuit for which no allocation has yet been made.

An amount of Rs 10 crore has been set aside for the Nila tourism project. Another Rs 25 lakh has been allocated for developing a comprehensive pilgrimage tourism circuit.

Realty allocation - Rs 160 cr

The booming realty sector has nothing much to cheer in the budget where issues facing the sector find little mention.

As part of upgrading standards, the government has proposed to set up a Technology Innovation Fund for which it has allocated Rs 1 crore.

A serious problem that the sector needs to surmount is the shortage of skilled labour. Aimed at addressing this even in a partial manner, the government has proposed to set up a Kerala Construction Training Institute at Kattapana in Idukki district with the support of the Kerala Housing Board and the Nirmithi Kendra for which there is an initial allocation of Rs 1 crore.

A trained labour bank under the aegis of the Kerala State Nirmithi Kendra will be set up. During this fiscal alone 1,500 people will be trained to join the bank so that the burning issue of labour crunch can be addressed.

A sum of Rs 1 crore will be allocated to the proposed regulatory authority proposed in the real estate sector.

The serious problem of sand shortage has forced the government to look at setting up a sand-manufacturing unit on experimental basis for which Rs 1 crore has been allocated.

As part of the effort to settle the backlog of Rs 750 crore the Kerala Housing Board owes to HUDCO, the government will set aside Rs 150 crore for the board so that it can initiate steps to settle the issue in a time-bound manner and seek support from HUDCO.

A sum of Rs 10 crore has been set aside to digitize land records in the state which will make things simple and easily accessible to people.