Thiruvananthapuram: The Minister for Food and Civil Supplies in Kerala, GR Anil, expressed dissatisfaction with the Kerala state budget presented by the Finance Minister, KN Balagopal, on February 5th, for the 2024-25 financial year. The Minister is dissatisfied because in the current budget, the required amount has not been allocated to essential departments, including Supplyco.
Anil Kumar highlighted that the Kerala budget did not allocate funds for market intervention and for repaying Supplyco’s debt. He refused to shake hands or congratulate the Finance Minister KN Balagopal after the budget presentation. Similarly, some other Ministers of CPI also expressed discontent with the Kerala budget.
Citing financial crisis, the government has not paid the money to Supplyco for the distributors for a long time, resulting in distributors being unwilling to supply goods. Subsidized products have not been available in Supplyco outlets for more than six months. Supplyco has demanded Rs 1094.55 crore from the state government to settle the arrears, but only Rs 215 crores have been sanctioned by the government so far.
Notably, the government did not allocate any funds for Supplyco in the financial year 2022-23.
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