Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday promised comprehensive development and renovation of temples and monasteries and announced ₹425 crore allocation for it as he presented a revenue surplus budget with no proposed taxes months before Karnataka is due to go to the polls this year.
“In the next two years, comprehensive development and renovation of temples and mutts [monasteries] will be undertaken…with an expenditure of ₹1,000 crore,” Bommai said in his budget speech.
He announced a majestic Ram temple will be constructed in Ramadevara Betta. Bommai sad the annuity payable for leased lands of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department will be enhanced from ₹48,000 to ₹60,000.
An additional grant of ₹375 crore has been sanctioned for 1,115 institutions of the mutts belonging to the backward classes.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which came to power in Karnataka after the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) government fell following the resignation of 15 legislators in 2020, hopes to return to power in the state.
Karnataka has been in the news over the last few years over polarising issues such as the ban on hijab in educational institutes and communal tensions.
Bommai announced a new scheme, Shrama Shakthi, to provide financial assistance of ₹500 monthly to landless woman farm labourers and free bus passes for women working in organised sectors.
He said the ₹1,000 crore scheme for the passes will benefit around 300000 women. Similarly, free passes will be given to all school and college students under the Vidhya Vahini scheme.
Bommai announced the construction of 250 “She Toilets” at a cost of ₹50 crore in markets and commercial complexes in Bengaluru.
The Congress has focussed on women ahead of the polls. On January 16, it promised to introduce Gruha Lakshmi scheme for providing ₹2,000 monthly to women-led households if it voted to power in the state. At a Na Nayaki (I am a woman leader) convention, the party said the direct benefit scheme will help 150 million housewives.
Bommai announced a ₹9,698 crore grant for Bengaluru’s development. The grant will finance a five-kilometre elevated road at a cost of ₹350 crore from Tin Factory to Medahalli, an integrated flyover from Yeshwantpur Railway Station to Mathikere, etc. Additional 120 km of roads will be white-topped at a cost of ₹1,000 crore.
₹300 crore have been allocated for the repair of roads in 110 villages brought under the jurisdiction of the city’s civic body. Bommai said new police posts will be set up in the city and ₹3,000 crore will be provided for flood control and other schemes.
The government will provide ₹1,000 crore to implement Sub-Urban Railway Project in Bengaluru. ₹1,813 crore have been allocated for 195 km of drainage and culverts. The government has allocated ₹150 crore to improve 75 junctions with the highest traffic congestion.
Bommai said the fiscal deficit has been reined in at ₹60,581 crore, or 2.60% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). He presented a revenue surplus budget of ₹402 crore. This broke the trend of revenue deficit budgets over the last two years.
The state’s liabilities have been pegged at ₹5.64 lakh crore or 24.20% of GSDP at the end of 2023-24 with borrowings of ₹77,750 crore.
The Congress has attacked the government saying the state has amassed ₹3.24 lakh crore in five years from 2018 and 2023. It pointed out the state’s borrowing was just ₹2.4 lakh crores over the previous 71 years.
Bommai said Karnataka’s GSDP recorded a growth of 7.9% in 2022-23, citing advance estimates. He added services and manufacturing sectors have grown by 9.2% and 5.1% and mainly fuelled the GSDP growth. “The resurgence of the economy in 2022-23 has pushed the per capita income of the state from ₹2.04 lakh to ₹3.32 lakh,” Bommai said.
The Union government has estimated the state’s share of taxes at ₹37,252 crore for 2023-24, which is 25% higher compared to estimates for 2022-23 ( ₹29,783 crore). Grants from the Union government have been pegged at ₹13,005 crore, down from ₹17,281 crore in 2022-23.
Revenue for 2023-24 is estimated to be ₹1,64,653 crore, up from ₹1,31,883 crore in 2022-23. This will be supplemented by gross borrowings of ₹77,750 crore.
The budget outlay has increased to ₹3,09,182 crore from ₹2,65,720 lakh crore in 2022-23.
