Perhaps for the first time in the country, Kerala will look at budget presentations in a different way. V S Achuthanandan’s Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in the state has said that it would go for what it calls an Impact Budget from the next financial year onwards.

According to Finance Minister Thomas Isaac, the state government’s new impact budget will seriously look at the macro economic implications of each proposal in the budget. The state government, as per plans, is expected to bring about a change in the traditional budget. This, as of now, involves a listing of the financial proposals, and the state administration feels that the new exercise would help the government channel resources towards schemes that would be beneficial to the people and the state’s development.

The government would like to make the whole exercise outcome oriented. As of now, the Assembly needs to be informed about the cost of each proposal in the state budget. Also, the sacrifices the government is made to go for due to lack of resources has also to be announced in the assembly. This has led to the need for a new impact budget.

The concessions and waivers during the passing of the Finance Bill has led to Kerala seeing its budget deficit grow from Rs 761 crore rose to around Rs 900 crore. The government currently has decided that it would not go for any cut to in development expenses and funds meant for the benefit of the weaker sections.