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Bengaluru, Mar 6: In the face of unprecedented economic difficulties, Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa has chosen to hike the prices of fuel and liquor to fund development in his 2020-21 Budget, which tries to offer something for everybody with the available resources.

Yediyurappa announced a 3% hike in the rate of tax on petrol and diesel. This will result in the prices of petrol going up by Rs 1.60 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.59 per litre. This is expected to fetch the government Rs 1,500 crore.

By hiking additional excise duty on Indian Made Liquor (IML) by 6%, the government hopes to mop up Rs 1,200 crore.

In essence, Yediyurappa, the finance minister, pointed fingers at the Centre for the state’s fiscal woes. He said Karnataka’s share in Central taxes has come down this fiscal by Rs 8,887 crore. Plus, Rs 3,000 crore GST compensation will also be reduced as collections from the GST cess are not on expected lines, he said in his Budget speech. 

“It has become difficult to reach the 2019-20 Budget targets due to these reasons. To manage this situation within the bounds of the Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act, it has become inevitable this year to cut down the expenditure of many departments,” he said.

Under the 15th Finance Commission, Karnataka will see a reduction of Rs 11,215 crore in the state’s share of central taxes in 2020-21, Yediyurappa said. He also pointed out that expenditure on salaries, pensions and loan interest payments had risen by Rs 10,000 crore. “Serious difficulties are being faced in resource mobilisation efforts of the state. The state never faced economic difficulties of this magnitude in the previous years,” he said.

But in an attempt to please all, Yediyurappa made announcements across sectors and communities. Instead of the usual department-wise announcements, the CM chose to divide the Budget into six sectors: agriculture & allied activities; welfare & inclusive growth; stimulating economic growth; Bengaluru development; culture, heritage & natural resources and administrative reforms & public service delivery.

Farmers will get additional incentives under PM-KISAN costing Rs 2,600 crore and a waiver of interest on loans they have borrowed from cooperative banks worth Rs 466 crore.

The CM has earmarked Rs 500 crore to start work on the Kalasa-Banduri canals under the Mahadayi project. Also, Yediyurappa has given Rs 1,500 crore to commission the Yettinahole drinking water project.

This project will cater to the districts of Hassan, Chikkamagaluru, Tumakuru, Bengaluru Rural, Ramanagara, Chikkaballapur and Kolar.

For Bengaluru, the CM has made an allocation of Rs 8,772 crore. This includes Rs 500 crore for the suburban rail project, an electric bike taxi project and bus priority lanes.

Significantly, Yediyurappa has not made any allocation to mutts. However, the government will spend Rs 100 crore on the Anubhava Mantapa at Basavakalyan, Rs 66 crore for a 100 ft Kempegowda statue in Bengaluru and Rs 20 crore on a 325 ft statue of Basavanna at the Murugha Mutt in Chitradurga.

The CM has given Rs 305 crore for the development of various communities — Christians (Rs 200 crore), Upparas (Rs 10 crore), Vishwakarma (Rs 25 crore), Ambigara Chaudaiah (Rs 50 crore), Arya Vysya (Rs 10 crore) and Kumbara (Rs 10 crore).

Also, nearly 22.5 lakh government employees and their dependents will get cashless treatment facility for surgical treatment procedures at an estimated annual cost of Rs 50 crore under the Jyothi Sanjini scheme, the CM said.

Bengaluru, Apr 11:  Amid nationwide lockdown in the wake of COVID-19, former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Saturday urged the state government to announce a relief package for farmers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday held a video conference with Chief Ministers.

Taking to Twitter, Kumaraswamy wrote, "As the lock down continues, what action plan does the government have to tackle the challenges of ensuring marketing channels for farm produce with timely transport and ensuring uninterrupted supply of essential groceries to towns and cities?"

He later asked the government to act "swiftly and effectively".

"On one hand we see farmers throwing their produce in despair and losing their livelihoods. On the other hand supplies to towns are depleting. This is threatening both lives and livelihoods. The government must act swiftly and effectively," Kumaraswamy tweeted.

"I urge the state government to immediately announce relief package to farmers by way of direct benefit transfer mechanism and purchase all the agricultural produce so as to avoid farmer suicides," he added.

With 40 deaths and 1,035 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, India on Saturday witnessed a sharpest ever increase in coronavirus cases, taking the tally of the infected people in the country to 7,447, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Bengaluru, Apr 14: 11 more COVID-19 cases have been reported in Karnataka since 5 pm Monday, informed the state government on Tuesday.

The total number of coronavirus positive cases in the state now stand at 258, including 9 deaths and 65 discharged.

To check the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus, the 21-day lockdown announced last month has been extended by the Centre till May 3.

Meanwhile, India's total number of coronavirus positive cases has climbed to 10,363 including 8,988 active cases, 1,035 cured/discharged/migrated and 339 deaths, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said today.