Thiruvananthapuram: The wrong-footed move by the Modi government to target NRIs, the vital source that sustains Kerala’s economy, has further curtailed the chances of the saffron party to ever see lotus blossom in the secular-minded state.
Remittance money is a highly emotive issue in Kerala as most families, particularly in Malabar and central Kerala, have one or more members working in the Arabian Gulf, Europe and the United States.
Unlike NRIs hailing from the rest of India, the Kerala expatriates keep close bonds with their families back home. So there is zero tolerance to anything that affects the welfare of NRKs, the popular term used to identify non-resident Keralites.
When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced in her budget that NRIs who work in countries that do not have income tax will have to pay tax in India for the income earned in their country of residence, it alienated large sections of the people.
Although there is no formal personal income tax in the Gulf countries, the governments there impose heavy levies by way of visa charges and a myriad of fees. The budget seems to have overlooked this vital fact.
A day after the presentation of the budget, the Finance Minister clarified that only incomes generated within India by NRIs would be taxed, seeking to pacify the agitated population as most political parties joined the vociferous protest. But the damage had already been done and it has left an indelible mark on the Malayalee psyche.
Although there are some more sticking points left, the most important of which is the reduction in the number of days an NRI can stay in India without losing the non-resident status, the most emotive issue continues to the bid to tighten the screws on the NRIs with all its sensitiveness.
It is true that some of the most successful businesses in the Gulf are owned by Keralites, who have shown the kind of business acumen their counterparts in their own state were never capable of. Yet a large number of non-resident Keralites working in the Gulf are low-earning blue-collar workers, who struggle with their inhospitable conditions to save money for their families back home.
Their cause evokes sympathy among all shades of opinion and it would indeed be difficult to contain the political impact of the central government moves to target non-resident Indians, although the reduction in the number of days to make one eligible to retain NRI status affects mostly the business class, whose number is very limited.
Already organisations representing NRI interests and their beneficiaries back home have attacked the Modi government for its budget proposals. The Gulf Malayalee Welfare Association pointed out that the squeeze from the Indian government comes at a time when NRIs are struggling to cope with the high cost of living, high education costs and steeply rising airline ticket charges.
They assert that no other budgets in history has targetted non-residents as the Modi government has done and called upon the state government and MPs from the state to put pressure for their withdrawal.
Similarly, the Kerala Pradesh Pravasi Congress, an outfit affiliated to Indian National Congress, has assailed the failure of the Modi government to address the issues of Gulf returnees, such as bank loans for starting new businesses or rehabilitation of those who have lost jobs.
Large number of Gulf expatriates are coming back home on a daily basis, creating a sizeable section of frustrated people, with its social and cultural fall-out in the state.
