Thiruvananthapuram: Seeking to mop up funds for its development and welfare initiatives, Kerala's Congress-led UDF Government hiked taxes and levies touching mostly motor vehicles, liquor, textiles and buildings.
In his budget for 2014-15 presented in the state Assembly, Finance Minister K.M. Mani sought to raise additional resources of Rs 1556.35 crore while giving emphasis on farm sector and increasing various welfare pensions.
Claiming that the levies were being rationalised, the budget proposed to collect around Rs 260 crore from motor vehicles and transport sector alone. This is not only expected to affect the affluent but also the common man may have to pay more to travel in autorickshaws.
The budget sharply increased the purchase tax on imported vehicles, lumpsum tax on motor cars of various capacities and sizes, new generation caravans and inter-state coaches.
It also hiked the duty on Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) by 10 per cent, eyeing to net an additional amount of Rs 400 crore.
In a proposal that could impact the real estate business, the Finance Minister rationalised the compounding taxes on metal crusher units and brought manufactured sand under the tax net, which together would contribute Rs 140 crore.
The concession enjoyed by eateries selling multi-national brands had been withdrawn, making the food sold by them costly.
The exchequer targets to get Rs 10 crore from its. The service apartments given on daily rent basis had been slapped with a 12.5 per cent tax.
The budget proposed to double taxes on building and levy on luxury buildings, seeking to mop up Rs 70 crore.
However, in a relief to low income groups, houses having a plinth area of up to 100 sq metre and commercial buildings of 50 sq metre have been given exemption.
Price of weekly lotteries would be increased by Rs 10 and the government expects to get Rs 5,500 crore from the lottery business.
Sailing into its fourth year in power and the Lok Sabha polls round the corner, the UDF government proposed a slew of sops for agricuture sector and enhanced various welfare pensions.
Land prices in the state might go up with budget proposing to increase the fair value of land and necessary changes in the law will be brought in this regard. It also proposed to rationalise stamp duty for various document registration with an objective to mop up Rs 100 crore.
The budget proposed changes in the compounding tax structure levied on gold merchants, expecting a loss of Rs 25 crore to the state exchequer.
However, towing the populist line, Mani announced free laptops for girl students from BPL families pursuing professional courses. An amount of Rs 10 crore has been earmarked for the scheme which would implemented through state IT mission.
Under the Income Guarantee Scheme, 90 per cent of the premium would be borne by the government.
Farmers holding up to two hectares would benefit from the scheme in the event of failing to get adequate returns from the crops they reared.
An outlay of Rs 50 crore has been provided for the scheme. While giving thrust on agriculture development by setting aside an amount of Rs 900 crore for the sector, the government announced an amnesty scheme for farmers having debt arrears up to March 2005.
To promote coconut related products, the budget exempted soaps made of coconut oil from tax and also reduced to five per cent tax on rubber spray oil used by rubber growers in their plantations.
To provide solace to the common man, tax on maida and atta were exempted from tax. The government expects to incur a loss of Rs 25 crore on this account.
Similarly, tax on branded and unbranded bakery items like different cakes, halwa, mixture and laddu have been unified to five per cent, a long standing demand of Kerala bakery owners.
The budget exempted the Kochi Metro project from Works Contract Tax, which will cause Rs 250-crore loss to the state government.
Along with increasing various pensions, Mani also raised the pension amount of scribes under the Kerala government journalist pension scheme to Rs 8,000 from Rs 7,000 and that of non-journalists to Rs 5,000 from Rs 4,000.
A Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (Rs 50 crore), Income Guarantee Scheme (Rs 50 crore) and Agri Card for availing various government benefits were some programmes unveiled for farmers.
Formation of an Agriculture Mission to promote high-tech farming with the help of agencies like M S Swaminathan Foundation, a debt relief scheme for small holders and setting up of co-operatives for marketing of agriculture produce at the block level were some other farmer-friendly schemes proposed in the budget.
The budget showed a total revenue income of Rs.64,842.35 crore while revenue expenditure was pegged at Rs.71,974.04 crore.
After providing for additional expenditure of Rs 1398.80 crore, concessions of Rs.125.55 crore and additional resources mobilisation of Rs.1556.35 crore, the budget showed a year end deficit of Rs.168.92 crore.
