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Karnataka budget hikes fuel and liquor prices to raise revenue amid opposition criticism
Karnataka CM said the state revenue resources were hit due to a reduction in the state’s share of central taxes and a decline in collection of GST cess.
Karnataka 2020 budget on Thursday announced an increase in Petrol prices by ₹1.60 per liter and Diesel by ₹1.59 per liter along with a six per cent hike in the prices of liquor across 18 different slabs in order to shore-up revenues while inviting criticism from the opposition.
BS Yediyurappa, who also holds the finance portfolio, presented his seventh budget which estimated a Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) growth of 6.8% in the current fiscal against 7.8% in the last fiscal 2018-19.
He attributed the decline mainly to the slowdown in the agricultural sector due to drought as well as the devastation caused by floods over the last couple of years.
The CM said the state revenue resources were hit due to a reduction in the state’s share of central taxes by ₹8887 crore, he added that there would be an additional decline of ₹3000 crore in GST compensation because of lower collection of the GST cess.
“In view of this allocation by the 15th Finance Commission, there will be a reduction of Rs.11,215 crore in State’s share of central taxes in 2020-21 budget when compared to 2019-20 budget,” the CM added.
On the other hand, the expenditure on government employee’s salary, pension and interest on government loans had risen by Rs.10,000 crore for the year 2020-21 as per the budget document.
The budget announced a separate category to fund needs of children named ‘Child Budget’ for the first time in the history of the State.
“All the policies and programmes for the development of children below 18 years of age are consolidated and presented in this Budget. 279 programmes involving Rs.36,340 crore are proposed in the Budget for the year 2020-21, comprising of 15.28% of the total volume of the Budget,” Yediyurappa said.
The budget had various sops for different segments including free monthly bus passes to one lakh women labourers working in garment factories and a grant of ₹2000 per month for the education of auto drivers’ children. Chrisitan community was given ₹200 crore for its upliftment.
Yediyurappa said Bengaluru which generates about 50 per cent of the state revenue would get ₹8334 crores in schemes, including ₹500 crore for the centrally-aided suburban rail project to be built at an estimated cost of ₹18,000 crore. The capital will also get ₹999 crore for solid waste management and ₹317 crore for lake rejuvenation, maintenance and development as well as purchase of 90 electric buses.
The CM also announced various schemes aimed at farmers.
Opposition parties criticized the budget with former CM and JDS leader H D Kumaraswamy saying that “All they have done is continued with the schemes we announced. The state is not getting its due share from the Center as admitted by the CM himself. This is a budget that makes no one happy. For instance, the allocation for the health department is not enough even to paint the hospitals.”
Congress leader and former CM Siddaramiah said the budget does grave injustice to the farmers, Dalits and minorities.
“This is a budget without direction. They have betrayed the voters. They have hiked the petrol and diesel prices and even tipplers have not been spared,” he said.
