Oppositionn stages walk out during Budget discussion

Thiruvananthapuram, Mar 14 (UNI) The entire Congress-led Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) today staged a walk out from the Kerala Assembly towards the fag end of the three-day general discussion on Budget for 2007-08 when Finance Minister Thomas Issac failed to give the revised estimates after he announced certain tax rebates and new schemes.

As soon as the Finance Minister concluded his speech, Kerala Congress(M) leader K M Mani, who held the Finance portfolio for a number of years, wanted to know the revised revenue expenditure after the new announcements.

The Minister could not give an exact reply and the advice he got from the officials was that the revised estimates could be presented at the time of passing the final Budget.

However, leader of the opposition Oommen Chandy said it was the responsibility of the government to make public the total additional financial burden due to new rebates at the end of the general discussion on Budget. ''We are ready to wait for another half an hour to get the details from the Minister'', he added.

When Dr Issac insisted that there was no such precedents, the opposition staged a walkout alleging that the Minister's reply was disrespect to the House.

In the absence of the opposition, the Budget was referred to the Subject Committee concerned.

Earlier, Dr Issac exempted close relatives like father, mother, wife, husband, children, bothers and sisters from the purview of the newly introduced six per cent tax on transaction of immovable property on the strength of irrevocable powers of attorney.

He also announced additional allocation for the setting up of seven mini civil stations, Rs five crore for the procurement of land for the porposed Kannur airport, Rs four crore for traders' welfare, Rs one crore for the development of Thrissur General Hospital, Rs one crore for Silent Valley Buffer Zone, Rs 75 lakh for Hajj centre and several other new projects.

UNI