Kochi: Despite reeling under deep financial crises, the Left government in Kerala is borrowing Rs 4,800 crore to meet expenses for harvest festival Onam, media reports said. This is out of the borrowing limit of Rs 16,257 crore set by the center for the final three months from January to March, 2025, the reports said.The state’s borrowing limit for the fiscal is Rs 37,512 crore out of which Rs 21,253 crore was meant for expenses till December. A total of Rs 16,257 crore is left to manage for financial requirements from January to March 2025 out of which Rs 4,800 crore is going to be used.
To deal with the resulting financial problems the government has planned a 50% cut in plan expenditure this fiscal.The government is also borrowing Rs 1,000 crore at an interest rate of 9% from a consortium of cooperative banks to pay two months’ worth of welfare pensions.The Kerala government plans to disburse two-month pension for over 60 lakh beneficiaries as an Onam gift. Around 62 lakh people will receive Rs 3,200 each for Onam. It has also announced to give government employees Onam bonus of Rs 4,000 each this month. Festival allowance of Rs 2,750 will be given to employees who are not entitled to bonus.
Service pensioners and employees under the contributory pension scheme will get a special festival allowance of Rs 1,000.The Government employees are entitled to a festival advance of Rs 20,000 while part-time and contingent employees Rs 6,000.According to the Reserve Bank of India the total debt of Kerala till 2024 is Rs 4,29,270.6 crore.Kerala’s debt in 2016 was Rs 1,62,271.5 crore, which reached Rs 1,91,622.9 crore in 2017, Rs 2,16,499.4 crores in 2018, Rs 2,67,585.4 crores in 2020 and Rs 3,10,856.2 crores in 2021.
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