The 2025-26 Kerala Budget will focus on accelerating the growth process that has been set in motion in the State, new investment models, and sustaining the pace on welfare spending, Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal said.
At a pre-Budget chat, Mr. Balagopal said he was satisfied with his performance as Finance Minister, expressing confidence that Kerala would be moving forward, and not backward, in the coming fiscal. Things were looking up for the economy despite Kerala passing through its toughest phase in recent history, emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, the destructive floods, and a fiscal crunch spawned by unprecedented cuts in central transfers, according to him.
The Minister indicated that capital expenditure and spending on welfare measures would not be hit next year. On additional resource mobilisation, he said the State government had limitations in new taxation and hinted that nothing of unusual shock value was in the works. However, he drew attention to certain charges that had remained untouched for decades without getting updated.
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