BENGALURU: Terming the July 2023-24 budget as a "guarantee Budget", Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Friday said the government had to go for increased borrowings on account of the fiscal indiscipline by the previous BJP government and partially to fund the five poll guarantees.
Speaking to the media after presenting a record 14th budget, Siddaramaiah said: "The total requirement for our five poll guarantees is at Rs 35,410 crore for this fiscal. These five guarantees have pushed us into deficit due to the previous financial indiscipline. But with the increased tax collection targets to generate additional Rs 13,500 crore, another Rs 8,000 crore from borrowings and rest from other sources we will be able to meet the financial requirements for the fiscal to service the poll guarantees."
Siddaramaiah dismissed the concerns of the poll guarantees becoming a burden on the state exchequer in the current fiscal situation and said that it was the previous BJP government’s indiscipline that has created the Congress government financial trouble.
Siddaramaiah said the bigger concern has been the allocation of works to contractors and left the Congress government to pick up the bills.
"To satiate their need to steal money they approved projects without keeping money aside for their works. They simply called for tenders and did not bother to set aside funds for the projects," Siddaramaiah accused the previous BJP government.
The CM said specific targets were set for every department with additional taxes and duties, with Rs 6,000 crore projected from increasing the guidance value of properties later this year apart from generating Rs 1,000 crore from Excise duty, Rs 1,500 crore from Mines and another Rs 1,000 crore from motor vehicles tax on certain vehicle categories.
"Them apart, we will have another Rs 4,000 crore from the commercial taxes department who have been asked to generate the same through more stringent checks and increasing the GST collection," he said.
