CM dusts off some old proposals, adds some new ones and betters Yeddyurappa’s dream of a Rs1 lakh crore budget to keep everyone happy. Like Trivedi, is it time for him to move out?
Chief minister DV Sadananda Gowda on Wednesday presented his maiden budget loaded with all the ingredients to prepare for the assembly polls. The Rs1.02 lakh crore budget set a new high in the state’s history by fulfilling the dream of his predecessor BS Yeddyurappa who wanted to present a Rs1 lakh crore budget.
Continuing the tradition, which was started by Yeddyurappa last year, of presenting a separate agriculture budget, Sadananda Gowda has taken special care to ensure that no fresh tax burden is imposed on the common man.
The VAT exemption on rice, wheat and pulses will continue for one more year, sales tax on diesel has been reduced from 18% to 16.75% and tax on gold and jewellery has been reduced from 2% to 1%.
The chief minister has targeted liquor, tobacco products and luxury services to mop up additional resources to implement budget promises.
The Rs1,02,742 crore expenditure envisaged in the 2012-13 budget represents an increase of 20.42% over the Rs85,319cr budget presented by Yeddyurappa last year. This is the first time the state budget size has crossed the Rs1 lakh crore mark.
With an eye on the rural masses, agriculture and allied sectors get top priority with over Rs19,000 crore allocated for the purpose.
Zero interest short term farm loans up to Rs1 lakh, huge subsidies on seeds and fertilisers and allocation of substantial funds for implementation of irrigation plans have received a prominent place in the budget.
The chief minister has presented an Ugadi gift to the state government employees by announcing the implementation of the new pay commission report with effect from April 1, 2012. The pay revision will result in an additional expenditure of Rs4450crore for the exchequer.
Though the budget proposes to provide an allocation of over Rs6500 crore for various infrastructure development works in Bangalore, the budget does not have a single new project for the city. While the Metro rail project gets Rs500crore, Rs426cr has been provided for taking up the five signal-free corridors project.
With state suffering from severe power crisis, the energy sector has received a grant of Rs10,289crore, with funds allocated for purchase of 1280MW from private producers to meet the demand surge. The plan outlay for 2012-13 has been kept at Rs42,030cr, which is 10.40% larger than the outlay for the current fiscal. The government is expected to forego revenues of Rs150 crore due to various tax reliefs. As for raising the resources to meet the expenditure of over Rs1 lakh crore, the CM exuded confidence saying state’s own tax revenue would be Rs51,821cr, which is an increase of 18% over the budget estimates of 2011-12.
The government expects to collect Rs3193cr through non-tax revenues and Rs13,094cr by way of its share in the central taxes and another Rs13,354cr from the Centre. These revenue receipts will be supplemented by gross borrowings of Rs21,609cr. The total receipts are estimated to be Rs1,03,369cr, thus the chief minister hopes to see it as a surplus budget even after setting a new milestone in expenditure.
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