The Congress strongly protested against the budget presented by Finance Minister KN Balagopal in the Assembly for the financial year 2023-24. KPCC has proposed a state-wide black day tomorrow against the harsh tax proposals in the budget. It was decided to intensify the protest in the emergency online meeting of KPCC held this evening after the budget.
Protest demonstrations and torchlight demonstrations will be held at the district and constituency levels. The decision taken at the KPCC meeting was to launch a strong public campaign against the budget. The Congress leadership is also considering observing the hartal by giving prior notice as per the directive of the High Court. KPCC president will announce more strike programs tomorrow
KPCC president K. Sudhakaran has warned that there will be a fiery strike against the anti-people announcements in the budget. The KPCC President stated that Kerala is going to see a fiery agitation in the background of the overwhelming public anger against the state budget which is increasing the cost of living of the entire people of Kerala.
The government has now imposed an additional tax of Rs 4000 crores without collecting thousands of crores in taxes. Prana Vayu is the only one that has no tax burden now. Sudhakaran said that the Congress will mount a strong defense by mobilizing the people against tax evasion and the government is pushing the people to the point of tax boycott.
Governments have increased taxes in the past, but along with it, they would announce measures that would bring relief to the people and projects that would benefit the country. But this time, not only did it not happen, the social security pension of the poor was not even increased. This is the government that came to power promising to increase the pension amount every year. No new big plans. Sudhakaran also pointed out that when the big projects started during the UDF were stalled, there was no support from the government.
Fuel prices have reached an unbearable level with the imposition of additional cess by the state government. Increase in rates like electricity duty, building tax, vehicle tax, liquor tax will affect all sectors and all sections of the population. The KPCC chairman also opined that the monetary inflation and difficulties it creates will make the lives of the common people who are going through severe economic crisis extremely difficult.
Sudhakaran pointed out that no control has been imposed on the government’s extravagance and wasteful expenditure and the government is not ready to set an example by reducing expenditure. Sudhakaran said that the Chief Minister should realize that dictators and regimes in many parts of the world have imposed burdens on the people in this way, but all of them have bowed to the people’s anger.
Congress is considering holding a hartal after pre-announcement. The consensus reached in the meeting was that there should be no lightning strike or lightning strike. It is considered that the hartal will be conducted by notifying the people in advance and following the legal procedures. After the announcement of the state budget, the opposition, which went on an open strike, had extended the strike to the streets. As part of this, black flag was also used.
