kozhikode l saturday l February 04, 2023 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l city EDITION IMF giving Pak tough time amid crisis: Shehbaz Sharif The conditions that the Fund wants Pakistan to meet are ‘beyond imagination’, the Pakistan prime minister said $7-billion assistance being reviewed Focus on fiscal consolidation Sharif added that Pakistan will fulfil the conditions, but refused to divulge more details. The IMF mission led by Nathan Porter is in Islamabad to hold talks with the Pakistan side headed by finance minister Ishaq Dar for the review of the $7-billion assistance package. Experts say Pak’s forex reserves have fallen to $3.09 billion, which would cover just around 3 weeks of imports ■ ■ According to reports in local media, the IMF wants clear action to bridge the daunting fiscal gap between 2 and 2.5 lakh crore rupees Pakistan has agreed to increase petroleum prices and allowed a market base exchange rate but that seems too little and too late as the IMF wants more measures to increase revenues $1.1 bn Outstanding amount Pakistan IS TO GET from IMF’S $7-bn bailout SECURED IN 2019 CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Fuel, liquor to cost more; tax on vehicles increased Balagopal targets additional revenue to fund programmes Experts call budget inflationary; Congress plans agitation OH DEAR! at a glance B2 per litre social security cess on sale of petrol and diesel (targetted additional revenue of H750 crore) pa i n p o i n t s New Delhi: The US Food and Drug Administration has restricted imports of products by Chennaibased Global Pharma after its eye drops were linked to an outbreak of “extensively drug-resistant” bacteria across 12 US states | P8 One-time tax on new bikes and car to go up by 1-2% (additional income of Rs 432 crore expected) Fair value of land to go up by 20% Around L3,000 crore additional M a j o r a l l o c at i o n s revenue L2,000 cr to arrest price rise L50.85 cr to deal to be with human-wild animal conflict L50 cr for Work mobilised Near Home facilities L62.9 cr for renewable energy in FY24 Chinese balloon over US airspace Stamp duty of flats and apartments revised from 5% to 7% L600 cr as subsidy to rubber farmers sourav roy Revenue receipts ‘Make in Kerala’ project will be developed with all facilities to increase domestic production, employment/ entrepreneur/ investment opportunities in the state L1,29,268.15 crore (2022-23 RE) Revenue expenditure New Delhi: The apex Court has issued notice Centre, Twitter and Google in a pleas challenging Centre’s decision to block the BBC documentary titled “India the Modi Question” | P7 L1,49,183.68 crore (2022-23 RE) L1,59,360.91 (2023-24 BE) RE: Revised estimate) RAJESH ABRAHAM Top quality job opportunities and stress on science and technology, environmental conservation, infrastructure development and higher education are the salient features of the budget Pinarayi Vijayan, CM The budget is hiding the critical financial situation faced by the government. The decision to impose cess on liquor will lead to more people shifting towards drugs V D Satheesan, Leader of Oppn INSIDE With his options limited, Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal on Friday chose to take some hard and unpopular measures to mobilise resources to manage expenses and fund government programmes. In the state budget for 2023-24, he proposed to hike fuel prices by Rs 2/litre, make liquor and personal vehicles costlier, increase the fair value of land by 20% and revise property tax and other fees with an aim to garner an additional Rs 2,900 crore in revenue. While experts called the budget “inflationary”, the opposition Congress announced protests to oppose the increased burden on the common man. The budget also spelt out the government’s vision for ‘Nava Kerala’ by outlining steps to harness renewable energy sources, including setting up of ‘Green Hydrogen’ hubs in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram, and a new ‘Energy Park’ to tap the possibilities of power generation from sunlight and wind. The budget also focussed on making Kerala a destination for ‘work near home’ and improving and establishing new IT and science parks even while placating the traditional fishing and the agricultural sectors. The vision included Kerala’s tourism 2.0 plan by developing tourism corridors, and no-frills airstrips in Idukki, Wayanad and Kasaragod. The robust growth of 12.01% in the state GSDP in 2021-22 is reflected in its revenues, the finance minister said, adding that this will continue in the current financial year too. As per the budget, the state’s own revenue grew by 25.19% to Rs 68,803.03 crore in 2021-22, and this is expected to increase to Rs 85,000 crore in 2022-23, a rise of nearly 24%. “This is Sabarimala devpt gets top priority I P2 Beijing: China said on Friday that a balloon spotted over American airspace was used for weather research and was blown off course, despite US suspicion it was spying | P9 SC asks Centre for original record L1,35,418.67 crore (2023-24 BE) (BE: Budget estimate The strength of the Supreme Court could go up from 27 to 32 within the next few days as the Centre on Friday informed the court that the warrants of appointment of five judges recommended by the collegium could be issued by Sunday “It is happening. The five warrants . of appointments are being issues. It goes to the President by evening. They will be issued,” Attorney General R Venkataramani told a bench led by Justice S K Kaul. On December 13, the Supreme Court collegium had recommended the elevation of Pankaj Mithal (Rajasthan HC Chief Justice), Sanjay Karol (Patna HC CJ), P V Sanjay Kumar (Manipur HC CJ), Ahsanuddin Amanullah (Patna HC judge) and Manoj Mishra (Allahabad HC judge) as SC judges. However, the bench expressed displeasure over the delay in even clearing recommendations for transfer of high court judges. US bars eye drops import from TN extra per bottle of IMFL with MRP above L1,000 (additional revenue of Rs 400 crore) make in kerala S H R U T I K A K K A R @ New Delhi EXPRESS READ bottle of MRP L500 B20 extraoffor eachto L999 IMFL with an B40 sector Soon, SC to have five more judges a g re at achievement,” Balagopal said, presenting the budget. While the government aims to collect Rs 600 crore through a revision in royalty in the mining sector, the budget also proposed a revision of fees and imposition of new taxes in the property sector. The budget proposed an additional tax for newly constructed houses that are not put to any use. The finance minister, in his speech that lasted two and a half hours, blamed the central government for the state’s financial woes, saying there was a serious threat to “fiscal federalism” and that the centralisation of power and disregard for states, especially Kerala, has “increased unprecedentedly .” “Unprecedented huge depletion of resources on the one hand and the additional burden is taken up on the other. These have to be considered together in comprehensively assessing the financial constraints,” Balagopal said. Experts, however, begged to differ. “The entire additional revenues garnered through the fuel cess and other taxes are going to feed white elephants such as KSRTC. While this government has spent over Rs 24,000 crore through wage revision of government employees and pensioners, there has been no hike for welfare pension beneficiaries in the last three years,” pointed out V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist, Geojit Financial Services, a stockbroking outfit. “This budget was a lost opportunity said ,” Jose Sebastian, economist and former faculty of Gulati Institute of Finance and ● More on P4 Taxation.  IT, startups get big boost I P4 Demographic deficit I P5 FM: Proposals will help generate more growth Congress to observe black day today It’s a double whammy for automobile sector Finance Minister K N Balagopal exuded confidence that the budget proposals will help generate more growth. He told TNIE that people will understand the circumstances that led to announce drastic revenue-mobilisation efforts | P4 Finance Minister K N Balagopal has given the Opposition a stick to beat the government with his budget proposals to hike taxes for several items. The Congress will observe February 4 as black day | P5 The proposal to increase the motorvehicle tax and impose an additional cess on fuel will harm the automobile industry, which was on a recovery path after the pandemic-induced slowdown, say industry players. | P2 RBI, govt bid to calm nerves on Adani stock SAC H I N K U M A R @ Mumbai WITH the Adani group saga still unravelling, the regulators and the Centre on Friday came up with clarifications to calm investors’ frayed nerves. While the Reserve Bank of India sought to allay the concerns about lenders’ exposure to Adani Group saying the banking sector remains resilient and stable, Union finance minister Nirmala Sithraman reiterated that the exposure of State Bank of India and the Life Insurance Corporation is within limits. Sitharaman said in a television interview that governmentowned financial institutions do not have overexposure in Adani group stocks. On LIC’s exposure, the finance minister said even with valuations falling, the company is still sitting on profits. SBI chairman Dinesh Khara also chipped in, clarifying that the bank’s exposure to Adani group is only 0.88% of its total loans, or `27,000 crore, while Bank of Baroda said its exposure is one- fourth of the permissible ceiling. However, there was no respite for Adani as bad news kept pouring. Credit rating agency Moody’s said the recent selloff in Adani shares could reduce the group’s ability to raise capital and that it is assessing overall financial flexibility including liquidity position of Adani , firms. Taking a harsh stand, S&P Dow Jones Indices said it would remove Adani Enterprises from the widely used sustainability indices on February 7, making the shares less appealing to environment-conscious investors. In another blow to the Indian conglomerate, S&P Global Ratings revised its outlook for Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone and Adani Electricity from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’. However, the Gautam Adani-led group found backing from Fitch Ratings, which said there is no immediate impact on the ratings of Adani entities and their securities. On Friday shares of Adani Enter, prises recovered after hitting a fresh 52week low of `1,017.45 on the NSE.