CM Siddaramaiah accuses previous BJP government of fiscal indiscipline and corruption, and Centre of gross injustice to Karnataka
The Hindu
Siddaramaiah alleged ‘gross injustice’ to Karnataka in tax devolution. 15th Finance Commission recommended only 3.65% of the divisible pool to be devolved to the State despite being one of the main contributors to the Centre’s revenue collection. Because of this, the State incurred a shortfall in tax devolution of ₹26,410 crore over the past three years
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) governments in the State and Centre of fiscal indiscipline, causing slow growth of economy, corruption and maladministration in his budget speech on July 7.
“The State was reeling under darkness and injustice. On the one hand, crony capitalists thrived, while on the other, common people suffered untold miseries. While the deadly pandemic was after our lives, maladministration and corruption cost common people much more,” he said.
Defending the 5 guarantee schemes of the Congress, he said they are necessary to ‘bring the people out of the calamitous cycle of suffering on account of demonetisation, COVID-19 pandemic, political instability, uncontrolled price rise and lack of vision for development’. Claiming that ‘corruption was one of the many significant contributions of the previous government’, he vowed to wipe out the menace.
Comparing the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of various sectors of Karnataka’s economy during 2013-18 under the previous Congress regime and during 2019-23 when BJP was governing the State, he said the previous government failed to revive the State’s economy from the COVID-19 induced slowdown. While the industrial sector grew at a CAGR of 8.7% and service sector at a CAGR of 9.69% during 2013-18, the figures were 3.86% during 2019-20 and 4.25% during 2022-23. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows had dropped from $22 billion in 2021-22 to $10 billion in 2022-23.
Accusing the previous government of fiscal indiscipline, Mr. Siddaramaiah alleged. “The total outstanding liabilities at the end of 2017-18 were ₹2,45,737 crore, which has shot up to ₹5,16,788 crore by the end of 2022-23. The debt repayment liabilities of the State were 9.5% of the revenue receipts in 2017-18, which has increased to 15.06% of the revenue receipts in 2022-23,” he said.
The Chief Minister pointed out that the previous government had failed to contain the committed expenditure and mobilise resources for public welfare programmes. Though the budget size has increased by 50% between 2018-19 and 2023-24, the committed expenditure towards salaries, pensions and interest payments have increased by 81% in these five years.
He claimed that the increasing outstanding loans and losses of electricity companies portrayed ‘the poor administration’ by the previous government.