Fading Gulf Dream – Rejimon Kuttappan

Kerala “highly stressed.” Kerala’s committed expenditure rises every year limiting the state’s flexibility to decide on other spending priorities such as developmental schemes and capital outlay.

Committed expenditure of a state typically includes expenditure on the payment of salaries, pensions, and interest. In 2022-23, Kerala has budgeted to spend Rs 94,781 crore on committed expenditure items, which is 71 percent of expected revenue receipts. This comprises spending on salaries (31.3 percent of revenue receipts), pension (20 percent), and interest payments (19.4 percent).

Further, Babu said, “Kerala has reached the third phase of migration where skilled migrants are required. Unfortunately, the current Kerala higher education sector is not capable of delivering job-market oriented talented migrants. “Eventually, Keralites will be rejected, and skilled workers from states like Maharashtra and others will benefit and they will remit more to their states,” he concluded.

Rejimon Kuttappan is a freelance journalist and author of Undocumented: Stories of Indian Migrants in the Arab Gulf (Penguin 2021)