Kerala Government Finance Minister K.N. Balagopal

The latest Kerala budget has an interesting resource mobilisation measure—court fee hikes. The state Finance Minister K. N. Balagopal announced that the state government anticipates an additional Rs 150 crore from this revision.

D Dhanuraj, Chairman of Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR), in speaking to Nirmal Jovial of THE WEEK on the matter, gave his observations.

“Kerala has a relatively high number of legal cases. It’s ironic that the government is looking to generate additional revenue through court fee hikes. It remains to be seen whether this will reduce the number of people seeking legal recourse. In many cases, the government itself is a litigant. The impact of these changes is yet to be assessed,”

Dhanuraj is quoted as saying.

Read the full article by THE WEEK here.

Views expressed by the author are personal and need not reflect or represent the views of the Centre for Public Policy Research.