Karnataka budget updates | Liquor to get dearer in State as government proposes duty hike; ₹52,000 crore earmarked for Congress’ five promises

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah presented his 14th State budget on July 7. He presented a budget with a total outlay of ₹3,27,747 crore, up from ₹3,09,182 crore in the budget presented by former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai in February 2023, for the same fiscal year.

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Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in the State and Centre of fiscal indiscipline, causing slow growth of economy, corruption and maladministration in his budget speech on July 7.

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The Hasireekarana programme will be implemented in 17 districts of the Bayaluseeme region at a cost of ₹500 crore over a period of five years, in convergence with Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. This will be done to ensure the coverage of 33% of the geographical area with forests as per the National Forest Policy.

With the view to strengthen traffic management and ensure the safety and security of women in Bengaluru city, action will be taken to establish five traffic police stations and six women police stations. In order to maintain law and order in the city and to strengthen existing police stations and offices, a total of 2,454 new posts will be created in two phases.

Action will be taken at a cost of ₹10 crore for the upgradation of police station units of the Crime Investigation Department (CID), Cyber Crime Division (CCD) and Cyber, Economics and Narcotics (CEN) which play a significant role in the investigation of crimes.

The State government has earmarked ₹120 crore for the construction of forest barricades to address man-elephant conflict in the year 2023-24. While in its previous tenure, the Congress government had proposed to construct 520 kilometres of barricades, so far 312 kilometres have been constructed.

A Blackbuck Conservation Reserve will be declared in Bidar district, which is home to a large number of blackbucks, CM Siddaramaiah announced in the budget. He added that ₹2 crore will be set aside for the protection and management of the Reserve.

Amrut 2.0 project, a centrally sponsored scheme, is being implemented with the objective of supplying clean drinking water and conservation of water bodies. The total project cost is ₹9,230 crore. This includes the government of India’s share of ₹4,615 crore and ₹4,612 crore share of the government of Karnataka and Urban Local bodies. This project is being executed in 287 towns with a population of less than one lakh. A total of ₹800 crore is allocated for this scheme in the current year.

A provision will be made in the Cauvery-2.0 for online registration of marriages. Currently, the registration of marriages is being done offline in the office of the Sub-Registrar.

To foster athletes and prepare them for international competitions, a regional basketball training centre in Bengaluru and a cycling velodrome in Mysuru will be established at a cost of ₹10 crore each.

In order to increase the participation of specially-abled persons and women in sports, a grant of ₹10 crore will be earmarked to provide necessary basic facilities and the services of expert coaches.

A grant of ₹5 crore will be allocated to establish a sports museum in Sri Kanteerava Stadium, Bengaluru. Further, ₹10 crore will be provided to establish well-equipped sports hostels on Public Private Partnership model.

Chamundeshwari Temple Development Authority will be constituted to undertake integrated development of Chamundi Hills and for providing the necessary infrastructure to lakhs of devotees who visit the Chamundeshwari shrine in the Mysuru district.

121 C category Muzrai temples with no significant earnings are being given cash grants ranging from ₹35 to ₹15,000. All these temples will be given a uniform grant of ₹15,000.

Our State will complete 50 years of renaming as Karnataka from Mysore state on 1st November 2023. On this auspicious occasion, programs will be organized throughout the year in the name of ‘Hesarayithu Karnataka, Usiragali Kannada’ about Karnataka’s history, art, literature and cultural ethos and to create awareness among youth about the essence of Kannada-Kannadiga-Karnataka.

All preparations have been made to start the government medical college in Chitradurga in the current year. The admission process will be commenced shortly.

A completely automated and centralized blood bank management system will be established in Bengaluru Medical College and Research Institute at the cost of ₹5 crore.

Under the police mobility scheme ₹100 crore will be provided in 2023-24 fiscal for the home department to replace old vehicles in a phased manner.

Action will be taken at a cost of ₹10 Crore for the upgradation of police station units of the Crime Investigation Department, Cyber Crime Division and Cyber, Economics and Narcotics which play a significant role in the probing of the crimes.

A museum documenting the historical development of the Kannada film industry will be established near Dr. Rajkumar’s memorial in Bengaluru.

Mr. Siddaramaiah also announced that the government will restart schemes for financial assistance for filmmakers. The scheme of providing financial assistance to films made in Kannada has been discontinued for the last three years. The scheme will be restarted and the selection committees will be formed shortly.

CM Siddaramaiah’s budget increases excise duty on Indian Made Liquor by 20% on all 18 slabs. The excise duty on beer will be increased from 175% to 185%. The revenue collection target for the excise department for the year 2023-24 is fixed at ₹36,000 crore.

The State government will be revising the guidance values for all immovable properties. The revenue collection target for the Stamps and Registration Department is fixed at ₹25,000 crore.

The nation’s first-ever public hospital dedicated to organ transplant will be established at NIMHANS at the cost of ₹146 crore, an amount of ₹ 30 crore is provided in the current year. Additionally, a Fibro scan will be provided for the detection of cirrhosis and cancer in patients suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD).

A new 200 bedded mother and child Hospital will be established in Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), Kalaburgi at the cost of ₹ 70 crore.

RGUHS will start state-of-the-art skill labs, research centres and indoor sports facilities in Belagavi, Kalaburgi, Hubballi, Davanagere, Dakshina Kannada and Mysuru districts and will also establish colleges of Allied Health Science in Kalaburgi and Mysuru districts.

To operationalize the Trauma Care Centres (TCC) in Mysuru and Kalaburgi, ₹30 crore will be provided.

Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology has been providing cancer treatment at an affordable cost to thousands of cancer-affected patients in the state. On the occasion of its Golden Jubilee Celebrations, ₹20 crore will be provided for the upgradation of facilities in its regional units at Kalburagi and Mysuru.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sets an increased revenue collection target for the Commercial Tax Department for the years 2023-24. The revised target is fixed at ₹1,01,000 crore. The previous budget presented by then Chief Minister, Basavaraj Bommai had a fixed target of ₹84,000 crore. The department in the 2022-23 fiscal mopped up ₹1,00,000 crore revenue.

In 2015-16, the creation of a world-class film city in Mysuru district was announced. The succeeding government intended to transfer the proposed film city to Bengaluru. However, this has not yet been implemented.

In accordance with the earlier announcement of our government, film city will be developed in the Mysuru district under the Public Private Partnership model.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah allocates ₹ 100 crore for repair, renovation and maintenance of Indira canteens across the State.

For the ongoing construction works of medical colleges and hospitals belonging to medical colleges, ₹450 crore has been earmarked. In the current year, construction work of 450 bedded hospitals in Gadag, Koppala, Karwar and Kodagu districts will be completed on priority.

The CM said Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) will establish a new medical college in Kanakapura taluk of Ramanagara district.

A total of ₹155 crore will be allocated to operationalise super speciality hospitals and burns care centers in the districts of Mysuru, Kalaburgi, and Belagavi.

To bring uniformity in the process of filling up of Ph.D. seats in all the Universities of the State, common counselling will be conducted for Ph.D. seats of all government universities and 40% of seats under private universities.

Conversional English classes will be started in all government higher education institutions of the State in collaboration with the British Council and Regional Institute of English.

To eliminate language barriers in pursuing higher education and to enable university students to write exams in Kannada, the government will translate widely used reference books and syllabi into Kannada.

To develop coastal tourism in the State, mainly in Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Uttara Kannada districts, the State government will form a ‘Coastal Beach Tourism Task Force’. Along with this, a detailed plan will be drawn out for the comprehensive development of the coast by the government.

The State government allocates ₹100 crore for the effective operation of Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Corporation Limited.

The State government will allocate ₹3,400 Crore for effective disposal of legacy waste, liquid waste management and to control the flow of pollutants into rivers and lakes. The project will prioritise the adoption of modern systems of processing drainage water. Out of the total allocation, ₹1,250 Crore will be provided for Bengaluru city and ₹2,150 Crore for other urban local bodies.

Stating that Karnataka has not been able to fully utilise its potential in the tourism sector under its tagline “One State Many Worlds”, CM Siddaramaiah said that a master plan called ‘Karnataka Tourism Development Vision’ will be implemented to help the State become a global tourism destination.

The State government will provide ₹75 crore for the comprehensive development of tourist destinations in the Kalyana Karnataka Region such as Hampi, Mailara, Ganagapura, Sannati and the forts of Malakheda, Bidar, Raichur, Kalaburgi.

Measures will be taken to integrate all scholarship schemes of higher education department under a single scholarship scheme. To incentivise good governance in public universities, 10 good governance indicators have been framed and an incentive of ₹50 lakh each will be provided to universities which show commendable performance.

Vision document-2035 will be prepared by the government for electricity generation, transmission and supply in the power sector to mitigate the loan burden on electricity companies under the Energy Department which is currently at ₹91,911 crore, CM Siddaramaiah said in the budget.

To prevent the menace of fake marks cards, the State government will make it mandatory for all the higher education students of the State to get registered in ‘The Academic Bank of Credits and to access marks cards and certificates from NAD/Digilocker.

A total of 224 residential hostels with a capacity of 13,169 students, currently under the Higher Education Department, will be transferred to Social Welfare and Backward Classes Welfare Department.

The State government will take action to open petrol bunks at 100 places under the ‘Udyama Shakti’ scheme in collaboration with public sector petroleum companies. These will be maintained through women self-help groups. Petroleum companies will provide capital investment for their construction. The State government will provide land for setting up petrol bunks along with training, license and other support.

A proposal is put forth to construct a new metro line between Hebbal and Sarjapur, at an estimated cost of ₹15,000 Crore, and will be submitted to Union Government for approval.

In the coming five years, 256 acres of land will be converted into parks in tech city added Mr. Siddaramaiah in his budget speech.

CM Siddaramaiah, during the budget speech, speaking on the NEP, said, “The National Education Policy (NEP) implemented by the Union Government is incompatible with the federal system of governance. It has several anomalies which undermine the Constitution and democracy. Uniform Education System does not suit a nation like India which has diverse religions, languages and cultures. A new education policy will be formulated keeping in mind the local, social, cultural and economic milieu of the State. The new policy will elevate the higher education standards in the state to the global level and empower our youth to compete globally and gain meaningful employment opportunities.”

A grant of ₹20 crore is allocated to provide infrastructure facilities to the University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE), Bengaluru, he added.

In his 14th budget speech, CM Siddaramaiah said 83 km of high-density corridor will be developed at the cost of ₹273 crore. Out of 192 km of roads designated as high-density corridors, about 92 km has already been developed. This project was first taken up in 2016.

Mr. Siddaramaiah also said the State government is committed to clearing all legal hurdles to implement the Peripheral Ring Road project.

The government will expedite the process of clearing stormwater drain encroachments to avoid floods during monsoon, he added.

To address the requests from literary figures and publishers in the State, a sum of ₹10 crore will be allocated for the procurement of books for public libraries.

CM Siddaramaiah announced a new program during his budget speech.

A new program named ‘Sasya Shamala’ will be introduced. As part of this initiative, 50 lakh saplings will be planted in and around schools during the current year. This collaborative effort will involve the Education and Forest Department, he said.

A new scheme called ‘Navodyama’ will be launched with an allocation of ₹10 crore for value addition of agricultural produce and to encourage innovation in the field of agricultural marketing. Additionally, ₹10 crore will be provided to encourage branding of farmers’ produce on the lines of ‘Nandini’ to enable marketing of farmers’ produce in State, National and International markets, the CM announced during his budget speech.

Dialysis centres at district and taluk hospitals will be set up at the cost of ₹92 crore across the State.

The free dialysis facility being provided to poor patients will now be improvised. The quality of service will be upgraded by installing single-use dialyzers in all district and taluk hospitals. With this, the existing 173 dialysis centres in the state will be increased to 219. For this, a total of Rs 92 crore has been set aside.

Already 23 PHCs have been upgraded to CHCs to strengthen the health system in rural areas. Rs 70 crores have been earmarked to provide the necessary equipment and human resources for theses CHCs.

A program for comprehensive screening, treatment, awareness raising and capacity building of health workers will be implemented. To address anaemia and malnutrition among newborns, children, adolescents, pregnant women, mothers and women in reproductive age in the State, Rs 25 crores have been set aside.

The State had last year taken up a unique project called “Brain Health Initiative’‘ in three districts to promote brain health care services in collaboration with Nimhans. After successful pilot implementation of this scheme, it will now be expanded to the entire State at a cost of Ra 25 crore on the hub and spoke model.

To ensure eye health, the “Ashakirana’‘ campaign will be taken up. Under this, eye camps, distribution of spectacles and cataract surgery activities will be conducted in all districts of the state in a phased manner.

Community-based screening activities will be undertaken for early detection of tuberculosis among the vulnerable sections of the society. As a pilot in eight districts of the state, two Hand Held X-ray machines will be provided to each district. At the cost of Rs 20 lakh per X-ray machine, a total of Rs 3 crore will be provided.

A comprehensive screening program will be implemented in eight districts of four divisions of the state to detect diabetes and hypertension and deliver essential medicines to their doorsteps.

In memory of late actor Puneeth Rajkumar, Automated External Defibrillators (AED) will be installed in district hospitals and taluk hospitals to prevent sudden cardiac deaths and Rs 6 crore have been set aside for this.

15 CT scanning and six MRI scanning centres in the state have already been set up in some district hospitals under public-private partnership, providing free laboratory services. These services will be extended to all district hospitals in the state.

As the state is already a leader in information technology, it aims to become a major hub in the adoption of health technology innovations. In this regard, the Karnataka Health Technology Laboratory will be established at a cost of Rs.8 crore.

Karnataka Digital Health Society will be established to implement the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Plan and all other internet initiatives of the Department including digitization of health records in the State.

CM Siddaramaiah said the government has decided to withdraw the APMC Amendment Act in the State. Members of several farmers’ organisations had been demanding the withdrawal of the APMC Act.

He also said Section 95 of the Karnataka Land Revenue Act will be amended so that people can convert agricultural land for non-agricultural purposes by way of self-declaration.

The amendments were on the lines of the Central law, which was repealed following the agitation by farmers in Delhi. “The amendments to the APMC enabled farmers to sell their produce anywhere instead of restricting them to the APMC. The clause imposing a penalty between ₹5,000 and ₹25,000 has been removed through the amendments.

The BJP government led by B.S. Yediyurappa had passed the Karnataka Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Bill 2020, and a law was enacted to enable farmers to sell their produce outside the APMCs. While the amendments were passed by the Assembly in September 2020, they were passed by the Legislative Council in December 2020.

Compare to the previous government budget, Chief Minister Siddaramaiha has cut 1% of revenue to the education sector. He allocated ₹ 37,587 crores (11%) to the education sector. However, it was ₹ 37,960 crores (12%) in the previous government budget.

The programme of providing eggs, groundnut chikki and bananas will be extended to students studying in classes IX and X of government and aided schools, covering a total around ₹ 60 lakh students in the State. For this, a total of ₹280 will be allocated in the budget.

With the aim of addressing the learning deficiencies in children, ‘Kalika Balavardhane’ program will be launched at a cost of ₹80 crore. Around 33 lakh students are expected to benefit from this program. Further under a new program “Marusinchana’, 1.5 lakh students with learning deficiencies will be prepared for the secondary level examinations through special training.

To inspire children to bring their imaginations to life, innovation labs will be set up in Higher Primary and Pre-University Colleges. In the upcoming fiscal year 2023-24, four labs will be established in each revenue division of the State, amounting to a total cost of ₹2 crore.

Various activities of the School Education Department are being carried out through the SATS software. This software will be upgraded to SATS 2.0, the CM said.

To provide better connectivity to Sir M. Visveswaraya Terminal at Baiyyappanahalli, CM Siddaramaiah has proposed to build a flyover. The estimated cost of the project is ₹263 crore.

He also said the State government will restart the white-topping project that was dropped by the previous government. The outlay proposes a white-topping of 100 km of major roads in the tech city of Bengaluru. About ₹ 800 Crore will be set aside for the same, he said.

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah presents the State budget with an outlay of over ₹3.27 lakh crore. Through the five poll promises, the Karnataka government will provide an average additional financial aid of ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 a month to each household, the CM said. -PTI

CM Siddaramaiah, speaking during the budget speech said the five pre-poll guarantee schemes of the Congress government will cost ₹52,000 crore.

The five ‘main’ guarantees, which Congress promised to fulfil after coming to power in Karnataka, were 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti); ₹2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi); 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya); ₹3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and ₹1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (Yuva Nidhi) and free travel for women in public transport buses (Uchita Prayana).

The Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) has grown at 7.9% in 2022-23, CM Siddaramaiah said during his speech. The GSDP growth is mainly fuelled by services and manufacturing sectors.

Comparing the growth of the economy during the previous regime and the BJP regime, Mr. Siddaramaiah said the BJP government failed in ensuring the growth of the State economy.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah during his budget speech asked the Opposition not to deride the five guarantee schemes of the Congress government as freebies. “I have asked the Opposition parties and others not to deride guarantee schemes as freebies,” he said.

The guarantee schemes are not freebies. In the neo-liberal economics of today, attracting investments and ensuring job-creating growth is as important as reducing the adverse impact of the widening gap between haves and have-nots. So these guarantee schemes are a means to reduce this gap and redistribute wealth to the poor when the trickle-down theory has failed, he said.

CM Siddaramaiah has surpassed the record of the late Ramakrishna Hegde who had presented 13 budgets.

Presenting the budget speech in the Assembly, CM Siddaramaiah said, Karnataka has always taken the two chariots of Development and Social Justice together from the times of Basavanna to Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wodeyar.

“Like I have tried to do in all the 13 budgets I have presented earlier, I have tried to take forward the Karnataka Model of governance “Sarvarige Samapalu, Sarvarige Samabalu” (equal share to all, equal opportunities to all),” he said.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who holds the finance portfolio begins his budget speech. This is his record 14th budget speech.

He presents the State Budget for 2023-2024 in the Legislative Assembly. He is expected to deliver a pro-people budget in view of the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. He may also look to ride high on tax buoyancy.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will present the State budget on July 7, which will be the first since Congress came to power in the State following the May 10 elections. This will be his record 14th Budget.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has arrived at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru to present the State budget. Karnataka Minister H.K. Patil said, “People have a lot of expectations and confidence in us. The Congress party has built that credibility in Karnataka and in the country. I am sure that we will be able to deliver. People will appreciate the budget.” -ANI

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