White Paper on Kerala finances exposes V.D. Satheesan’s claims: K.N. Balagopal

Former Kerala Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal has said that the White Paper tabled successful the Assembly has exposed the claims made by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and V.D. Satheesan erstwhile they were successful the Opposition.

Talking to reporters successful Thiruvananthapuram connected Thursday (June 4, 2026), Mr. Balagopal said that the Chief Minister, erstwhile helium was the Leader of the Opposition, had persistently repeated that the State’s indebtedness had touched ₹6 lakh crore. He had repeated it adjacent aft the past Left Democratic Front (LDF) authorities had stated that it would not transcend ₹4.8 lakh crore. The White Paper estimated Kerala’s outstanding liabilities astatine ₹5.07 lakh crore, debunking Mr. Satheesan’s claim, Mr. Balagopal said.

On outgo arrears

At the time, Mr. Satheesan had besides claimed that the LDF authorities owed much than ₹1 lakh crore to authorities employees. The White Paper revealed that the government's outgo arrears stood astatine lone ₹48,000 crore, helium said.

With respect to the privatisation proposals successful the White Paper, Mr. Balagopal said that the captious facet was whether the State’s interests could beryllium protected successful specified an environment.

Mr. Balagopal and Leader of the Opposition Pinarayi Vijayan said successful the Assembly connected Thursday greeting that the White Paper should person been drafted by the State Finance section and not by an outer panel. At the property conference, Mr. Balagopal reiterated the LDF's stance, drafting attraction to the request for secrecy regarding captious fiscal data.

Mr. Balagopal said the survey should not halt with the White Paper. The Expert Committee led by K.M. Chandrasekhar should beryllium tasked with studying the backing of the Indira Guarantees projected by the UDF authorities and taxable a further report. Regarding the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB), Mr. Balagopal drew attraction to the committee’s statement of the KIIFB arsenic a bold organization innovation.