The fiscal policy of the government will focus on the thrust areas highlighted in the perspective plan for 2030 published earlier.
The core thrust in the medium term fiscal policy statement of the budget for the coming year is restoring buoyancy in the agriculture sector, ensuring critical investments in infrastructure, and making healthcare affordable to all.
Building a Digital Kerala, providing affordable housing for the poor, promoting entrepreneurship to boost employment opportunities, and fulfilling the agenda of development with care will be the other focus areas.
The policy statement says that developing of sustainable agriculture, by increasing productivity and competitiveness, is a sine-qua-non for raising income and well-being of the present and future generations. Increasing investments in the agriculture sector with better off-take of agricultural credit is one part of this. One broad element of the fiscal policy will be to adopt measures for the rejuvenation of the coconut sector, which even now is the mainstay of income for a large segment of the population. Emphasis will be given to the revival of the rubber plantation sector through appropriate support mechanisms.
“There can be no sustainable growth in the economy without high quality infrastructure. A critical level of investment in infrastructure is necessary to address supply side constraints in the growth equation. For that, the government intends to build a sustainable transport network by developing an intermodal transport network.”
“Major infrastructure projects in the pipeline are the suburban railway corridor, Light Metro in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, Vizhinjam International Deepwater Multipurpose Seaport, etc. To address the requirement of resources for major projects, the State will tap into financial markets, including NRI remittances.”
The policy says that the State will have to ensure a comprehensive health support system which integrates the diverse health-care assistance programmes now in operation under different departments and agencies in the State. Such an approach will help augment public health sector infrastructure and serve to reduce health costs and out-of-pocket expenditure for the poor in particular.
It adds that the State will be developed into a knowledge economy where ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) is the keystone. Digital technologies will be used to deliver citizen-centric e-governance, health and education hubs, smart cities and villages, intelligent transport systems, applications of ICT in agriculture, land zoning, waste management.
Services notified under the Right to Service Act, 2012 should be available online to the fullest possible extent. “File movement for greater efficiency and speedier delivery of services and redressal of grievances should be achieved through systematic adoption of digital processing of documents, viz, e-office software in all offices in the State.”
Housing for all, it says, is not merely a desirable goal but an important ingredient of poverty alleviation strategy. The State will have to invest significantly in providing affordable housing to homeless population, particularly the poor.
