BENGALURU: Chief minister Basavaraj Bommai is said to be working on proposing a revenue-surplus budget for 2022-23 after two successive revenue-deficit ones. However, officials in the finance department say it’s going to be an uphill task given the burgeoning committed expenditure and limited revenue options.
Karnataka had been seeing revenue-surplus budgets since 2004-05, when then deputy CM and finance minister Siddaramaiah showed a surplus of Rs 150 crore. However, 2021-22 saw the government presenting a revenue deficit of Rs 15,134 crore, which is 0.89% of the Gross State Domestic Product, owing to the Covid-induced economic slowdown. The previous year’s budget had projected a revenue surplus of Rs 143 crore but was eventually revised to a deficit of Rs 19,486 crore.
