kerala budget 202324 is presented at a time when the state is undergoing the worst fiscal stress the finance minister had informed that the state would be facing a shortage to the tune of around rs 24000 crore on account of restrictions on borrowing imposed by the centre expiry of gst compensation and revenue deficit grant the options before him were to mobilize more own resources and prune public expenditure wherever possible has he succeeded on both these frontsa perusal of his budget speech reveals that on both fronts he has miserably failed the budget shows a revenue deficit of rs 23942 24 crore despite additional resource mobilization proposals amounting to around rs 2900 crore the pity is that he has embarked on a resource mobilization drive when he is pushed to the wallhe had the opportunity to test the waters in the 2021 revised budget and 2022 budget but when he tried it he should have targeted the middle class and the rich a perusal of the resource mobilization proposals would show that the burden would disproportionately fall on the poor and marginalizedalmost 62 of revenue is contributed by four items liquor lottery petroleum products and motor vehicles raising thetax on highvalue brands of liquor may not affect the poor and the marginalized much but the proposal to levy rs 2 cess on petrol and diesel is really the unkindest cut of all there are around 1 crore twowheelers besides 6 lakh auto rickshaws this is going to derange the family budgets the cess on petroleum products is sure to lead to an allround price risenote that the same fi nance minister has set apart rs 2000 crore for fi ghting price rise no wonder the opposition has planned a spirited campaign against his budgetthe proposal to make the local bodies mobilize rs 1000 crore by levying property tax at a higher rate is unlikely to succeed for the simple reason that they are illequipped to levy and collect property tax efficiently there is the possibility of resistance at the local level against raising the property tax rates in fact the local body representatives themselves are likely to torpedo this effort a better option would have been to take over the property tax from the local bodies through a taxrental arrangement where the loss of local bodies would be compensated the state could have levied property tax at a uniform higher rate across the state modern techniques like geographical positioning system gps could have been employed for assessing property tax this authors rough estimate shows that it is possible to mobilize rs 15000 crore from property tax another proposal is raising the fair value of land since the land market in the state is undergoing a recessionary phase it is unlikely that this achieves the target the proposals for raising the motor vehicle tax and electricity duty are quite reasonable but their revenue impact is going to be marginalthe question may be asked what other options the fi nance