Isaac said he would target as much as Rs 6000 crore in VAT revenue in the next fiscal. From Rs 2950 crore in the previous year, VAT collections in 2005-2006 ( by provisional estimates) were up to Rs 4500 crore.

"From 2.8% of the GSDP in 2005-2006, RD has zoomed to 4.29% of the GSDP in the current financial. As to fiscal deficit, it has emerged 5.97% of GSDP in 2006-2007, compared to 3.7% of GSDP in the previous fiscal," he added.

The chief culprit was poor show on tax front in previous years. Kerala's total tax-GSDP ratio has refused to budge beyond 11% of GSDP in 2001-2002, even when those of neighbouring States are escalating, says Economic Review.

In the case of State's own tax revenue, it had been stagnant at slightly more than 9% of GSDP. While non-tax revenue as share of revenue expenditure in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu were 11.78, 14.42 and 6.64 respectively, for Kerala this was a sorry 7.08%.

The State's latest tax collections efforts could not reflect on the revenue account because of the effect of pay revision hike to the State government employees and also prior arrears on prior committments, Isaac said. RD will be tackled, but not immediately, he added.