A day after being sworn into office, the UDF government in Kerala on Tuesday formed an expert committee to study the state’s finances and prepare a white paper within 10 days.VD SatheesanChief minister VD Satheesan chaired the first meeting of the special committee on Tuesday, said an official familiar with the matter. Former vice-chairperson of the State Planning Board KR Jyothilal will head the committee, which will also include KR Jyothilal, additional chief secretary (finance), D Narayana, former director of Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation and C Veeramani, director of the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram.The “white paper” will help the state government in finding new avenues to bolster revenues and plan a schedule to implement many of its election guarantees, including a hike in social welfare pensions, aid for female college students and free rides in state-run buses for women.Satheesan, in a press meet after his swearing-in on Monday, promised that the government would assess the current liabilities of the state in terms of salaries and pensions— areas where it is incurring heavy expenditure— as well as sectors displaying a revenue downfall. The white paper will also the handling of state finances under the decade-long LDF regime under former CM Pinarayi Vijayan.In 2023, Satheesan, then the Leader of Opposition, had brought out a ‘white paper’ in the Assembly to flag the state’s heavy public debt.After Satheesan was chosen as the CM, senior Congress leader AK Antony had asked the public to give the new administration some ‘breathing space’ to implement its promises .