According to A K Atal, president of the Cochin Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Menon's budget speech appeared to be more of a tribute to the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government. "The critical problems facing the state have been totally ignored," he said.

Mr Atal slammed the finance minister for not coming out with bold initiatives to bring the state out of the bleak financial scenario. "Trade and industry have been asking the government to come out boldly and take steps to promote growth for the overall benefit of our economy, but his budget does not contain any cause for cheer," he said.

The Ernakulam Merchants Union, while welcoming the proposal to set up a techno habitat in Kochi, came down heavily on the budget and said it lacked concrete suggestions to revitalise the trade sector. The Cochin Oil Merchants are upset over the non-inclusion of any proposal to resolve their problems on account of falling coconut prices and import of palm oil, which has seriously affected the trade of coconut oil.

Jose Thomas, president of the Seafood Exporters Association of India (SEAI), lamented: "The minister could have helped the money-spinning seafood industry to some extent by providing for some portion of the Rs 300 million Fishermen Welfare Fund, which is now the cause of a dispute between the government and us. We are willing to give Rs 100 million so we thought the minister would have made some allocation."

But economists said much should not have been expected of this budget as the state is heading for elections in a matter of weeks. In fact, Mr Menon won kudos from one section for largely refraining from announcing new schemes or policy shifts to score political points. Mr Menon attributed all of Kerala's economic woes to what he called the wrong policies of the Centre. He said the real picture was that while financially healthy states were crashing, Kerala had fared much better in comparison by holding on and emerging among the top five states registering high growth rates.

(India Abroad News Service)