With a host of new schemes and projects, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai opened his purse strings to woo farmers, women and the North Karnataka region - key constituencies in an election year - through his maiden Budget on Friday.
The Budget is “formulated by a common man to common people”, Bommai said as he presented his plan to spend Rs 2.65 lakh crore in the upcoming fiscal for which money will come, hopefully, by meeting revenue targets that have been hiked based on a promising post-pandemic economic growth.
“I have attempted balanced development of all sections of the society and all regions of the state in my first budget...,” Bommai said in his speech.
Much as he wants the Budget to be seen as a “please all”, Bommai’s focus areas are clear.
There are a number of offerings to farmers, the predominant occupation of many households. Chief among them is a new cooperative bank for milk producers to which the government will give Rs 100 crore and Rs 260 crore will come from the Karnataka Milk Federation and other unions. Bommai also hiked the cooperative credit target to Rs 24,000 crore covering 33 lakh farmers.
Bommai also announced the revival of the Yashaswini health scheme with a Rs 300-crore outlay for rural farmers. This, he said, was a long-pending demand. And, under the new Raitha Shakti scheme, farmers will get a diesel subsidy at Rs 250 per acre (maximum of 5 acres) at a cost of Rs 500 crore.
The Budget has dovetailed women into SC/ST schemes. For example, SC/ST women will get 25% reservation in all self-employment and other programmes run by development corporations. And, self-help SC/ST groups comprising 3.9 lakh women will get a special programme. Monthly honorarium for Asha and anganwadi workers - mostly women - and pensions for unmarried, divorced and acid attack victims will be hiked.
On infrastructure, Bommai unveiled a new ‘Aspirational Taluks’ scheme worth Rs 3,000 crore that is expected to benefit north Karnataka, a region that elects the most number of BJP legislators. This will add to new Nagarothana schemes for urban areas worth Rs 10,000 crore. Irrigation projects, too, have received allocations - Upper Krishna, Upper Bhadra, Mahadayi, Yettinahole and Mekedatu. The catch is that these are old, delayed projects.
Some of the infrastructure projects are to be implemented over multiple years, prompting Bommai to come up with the slogan - Nava Bharathakkagi Nava Karnataka (New Karnataka for New India) - to make them look long-term.
The challenge for Bommai, however, is resource mobilisation with GST compensation ending in June 2022.
His first Budget has a revenue deficit of Rs 14,699 crore and the government plans to borrow Rs 72,000 crore in 2022-23.
“While the total borrowings at any point should not exceed 25% of the GSDP, it is at 27.4% at present. Our target now is to bring this down to 25%,” he said. “This will take at least two years of financial streamlining.”
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