The proposal in the UDF government’s revised Budget for the 2026-27 fiscal to transform the State Planning Board into a ‘think tank’ has sparked a row with the Opposition Left Democratic Front (LDF) expressing a concern that the board will share the fate of the Union Planning Commission.

According to the Budget presented by Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan, the State’s 59-year-old Planning Board will be reconstituted as a government ‘think tank.’ It will play a “greater role in monitoring the implementation of priority projects and in acting as a link between civil society organisations and the State government to transform ideas into practical projects,” it said.

Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan, speaking to presspersons after the Budget presentation, expressed serious reservations regarding the proposal. The UDF government was openly mimicking the policy of the Union government which had replaced the Planning Commission with the NITI Aayog, Mr. Vijayan alleged.

Mr. Satheesan, at his post-Budget briefing, swept aside the concerns raised by Mr. Vijayan. “Does it say that the Planning Board will be dissolved? Does it say that we would change any of the activities currently undertaken by the board? It says that the board will be developed as a think tank that will generate ideas for the Kerala economy and its finances,” Mr. Satheesan said.

The proposal in the Budget is, in fact, a recommendation in the White Paper on the State’s fiscal health which Mr. Satheesan had tabled in the Assembly on June 4. The document noted that the State Planning Board needs to be restructured to become a more effective organisation.

“While it will continue its present activities, it should also be redesigned to serve as a think tank for the government. It must be a repository of ideas received from all over,” the White Paper had said. Further, it should also maintain close links with NITI Aayog and seek its assistance in various areas of development, the document had recommended.

In its annual Economic Review, the Planning Board notes that Kerala is the only State that has continued its commitment to the Plan process. The board was constituted in September 1967 with the Chief Minister as chairperson.