Communist Party of India (Marxist) leader and former Minister for Finance T.M. Thomas Isaac has questioned the United Democratic Front (UDF) government’s claim of “inheriting an empty treasury” from the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.

“The UDF government should be willing to disclose the cash balance when it came to power,” Dr. Isaac said, pointing out that Minister for Finance in the LDF government K.N. Balagopal had stated that the cash balance was approximately ₹6,000 crore.

Referring to Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan’s remarks that the UDF had inherited a treasury “so empty that a cat and her newborns had made it their home”, Dr. Isaac asked if that were the case, then how could the government sanction ₹1,070 crore for disbursing social security-welfare fund board pensions for May or increase the honorarium of ASHA and anganwadi workers.

On Mr. Satheesan’s announcement of preparing a White Paper on the state of State finances, Dr. Isaac said the LDF was not against it since it too had brought out White Papers in 2016 and 2006.

However, he said, the White Paper should be able to clarify three matters that Mr. Satheesan had brought up repeatedly. “One, how much does he intend to recover from the State’s revenue arrears of ₹25,000 crore. He had alleged ineptness on the part of the LDF in recovering the arrears.”

Mr. Satheesan had also claimed that rather than ₹700-₹800 crore, the State could mobilise ₹15,000 crore as GST revenue from gold sales. “The question is how much will they recover from the ₹15,000 crore.”

A report submitted by the Public Expenditure Review Committee during the term of the LDF government had estimated that the State was losing ₹25,000 crore owing to problems in Integrated Goods and Services Tax settlement. “But can the State alone bring in changes to GST implementation. So, what will be done to recover this unclaimed IGST should be made clear?” asked Dr. Isaac.

The panel of experts constituted for drafting the White Paper should give a reply to this, he added.