The Congress, which will form the Karnataka government on Saturday, will in all likelihood announce the implementation of the five “guarantees” it had promised to voters in its poll manifesto, in its first Cabinet meeting.
Both Mr. Siddaramaiah and Mr. D.K. Shivakumar, who will be sworn in as the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively, have said on many occasions that the Congress government’s first Cabinet meeting would announce the implementation of its poll promises.
Though Congress leaders estimated the cost of five “guarantees” at ₹50,000 crore annually, experts say that the figure would cross ₹65,000 crore.
Also read: Comment | States, freebies and the costs of fiscal profligacy
The cost of freebies will be close to the fiscal deficit of the State. In the 2023-24 Budget presented by the BJP government, it said “fiscal deficits are expected to be ₹60,581 crore”, which is 2.6% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). The implementation of schemes would increase the fiscal deficit to more than 4.5% of GSDP (₹1.14 lakh crore), an expert said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah, who presented 13 Budgets, said “guarantees” were for the welfare of the needy people. Around ₹50,000 crore will be required annually to implement these “guarantees”.
The former Chief Minister argued that “Karnataka is capable of meeting the expenditure because this year the State Budget touched ₹3.1 lakh crore and every year the Budget size grows by ₹25,000. So, by the end of the 5-year term, the Budget size will be ₹4.5 lakh crore. So, it is possible to implement the “guarantees”.
Backed by 21% buoyancy in revenue receipts post-COVID, the Basavaraj Bommai government presented the State Budget of ₹3,09,181.5 crore in 2023-24.
The five schemes that the Congress guaranteed it would implement are: ‘Gruha Jyothi’ to provide monthly 200 units of free electricity to every household; ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ to grant ₹2,000 every month to every women head of families; Anna Bhagya to distribute monthly 10 kg of rice to every member of BPL families, ‘Yuva Nidhi’ to sanction ₹3,000 dole to unemployed graduates and ₹1,500 to unemployed diploma holders every month for two years (in the 18-25 age group) and ‘Shakti’, free travel for women in ordinary public transport buses across Karnataka.
These ‘guarantees’ are considered one of the major factors that drove voters, particularly women, to support the Congress and its emphatic victory in the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections, political observers noted. The Congress bagged 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly.
A few BJP leaders have claimed that implementation of the ‘guarantees’ would push the State into financial bankruptcy, and have also claimed that the Congress would not honour its pre-poll promises fully.
The Congress leaders say that out of five guarantees, ‘Anna Bhagya’ is an ongoing scheme, and the new promise is to increase the quantity of food grains. The Congress promised to give 10 kg of foodgrains for each member of the BPL family per month against the BJP’s 5 kg.
Referring to the guarantee of giving 200 units of free power to households, sources said the State has achieved power surplus and giving free power would not be a problem.
On doling out ₹2,000 under ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ for women heads of families, sources said it is likely to be confined only to BPL families and not all women heads of households in the State.
The new government is likely to come out with strict guidelines implementing poll promises such as ‘Yuva Nidhi’, and ‘Shakti’, free travel facility for women in ordinary government-owned buses.
In fact, the State Budget for 2023-24, proposed to provide free bus pass facility to all women working in the organised sector and free bus pass facility to all school and college girl students of the State.
The Congress has maintained that these schemes are meant only to empower people and they are not freebies or ‘revari’ as called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the poll campaign.
