From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Mar 1: Lashing out at the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government for its failure to manage the State’s finances, former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday termed the chief minister’s claims of increasing the budget size without tax collection as ‘’foolish.’’

Bommai alleged that the State Government has totally failed to manage finance and it was surprising that chief minister Siddaramaiah has projected the state's zero progress as his achievement.

Reacting to the chief minister's reply to the discussion on the State Budget, he said the government has increased the budget size by Rs 62,000 crore compared to the previous BJP government budget. Last year, there was a deficit of Rs 54,000 crore. This year, it is only Rs 55,000 crore.

‘’The actual increase is only Rs 1,000 crore. The claims of generating revenue
at 103%, but how feasible is it to achieve development with this budget increase?’’ he asked.

The BJP leader said the budget size increase mainly goes towards government employees’ salaries, pension payments, pending debt repayments and guarantees, not towards revenue-generating schemes.

The state government has burdened the people of the state with a non-transparent and directionless budget. The anticipated GDP for the next year is expected to be Rs 28,000 crore, which stands on the foundation of the state's productivity.

Last year, they spent Rs 3.27 lakh crore, which is only an average of 50%. Now, it is 103% revenue generated. As per their budget, they plan to reduce around Rs 10,000 crore in the 2023-24 budget. The Siddaramaiah government is completely indifferent to both revenue and development.

The BJP leader said there was no contribution to GDP growth from the incumbent government. Claiming that they are working towards development is an insult to the hard work of the people of the state.

Political gimmicks to divert attention

The attempt by the central government to criticise their political opponents has failed in the budget response given by Siddaramaiah. The figures are very clear.

In the 14th Finance Commission, under the UPA regime, the state was allocated a share of Rs 1,51309 crore. In the 15th Commission, they have already released Rs 1.16 lakh crore. Another lakh crore is expected in the next two years. That is about Rs 2.25 lakh crore in reality.

Siddaramaiah has been spreading canards by saying that they have received more than Rs 1.50 lakh crore, Bommai said.

Similarly, the prime minister Narendra Modi's government has allocated around  6.51 lakh houses to Karnataka, amounting to about Rs 6689 crores for urban and rural poor. Under the Prime Minister's Kisan Samman Yojana, 53 lakh farmers have received Ts 13,669 crores, and for Rashtriya Sadbhavana Yojana, 6005 km of rural roads have been developed with Rs 97,246 crores.

The PMAY scheme has provided loans to 60 lakh students, and the Jal Jeevan Mission has benefited 62 lakh homes. All of these are not visible to the eyes of the chief minister. They have become famous for lying to the people in the Legislative Assembly, he stated.

"The reason for the reduction in revenue share in the 15th Finance Commission from the 14th Commission is directly because of Siddaramaiah's
government. When the 15th Commission's work was going on, Siddaramaiah's
government was here. They completely failed in the state's overall economic picture," he said.

"In the final meeting of the 15th Commission, the Congress had five ministers
in the mixed government. None of them raised any objections, resulting in a 1.1% reduction in the revenue share. The Finance Commission is a constitutional institution and does not come under the control of the central government," Bommai said.

Bommai said, "Another lie of the chief minister is to keep repeating is that they claim the central taxes, including the cess charges, amount to more than Rs 4 lakh crore. Who would agree to this? The GST is the only tax the states are receiving directly. The central government is not directly using the cess charges. Along with the GST share, the states have also received a revenue compensation of Rs 1,06,358 crore in the last five years. Why hesitate to say this?," he asked.