Bengaluru, Mar 4: CM BS Yediyurappa may reconsider plans to hike taxes and curtail populist schemes in his budget on Thursday as the Centre released part of GST compensation it owes the state. Officials said the Centre released the first instalment of the bimonthly compensation for October-November amounting to Rs 2,013 crore.
"This is welcome relief as the government has been scrambling to mobilise funds," said BT Manohar, member of GST consultative committee, government of Karnataka. The second instalment of Rs 1,523 crore is also expected to be released soon.
The CM, in his seventh budget, is expected keep the focus firmly on farmers and give top priority to irrigation, agriculture and welfare schemes.
The irrigation sector is expected to land the lion's share with an allocation of at least Rs 25,000 crore, followed by agriculture. Former CM Kumaraswamy had allocated over Rs 17,000 crore for water resources.
The bulk of funds is likely to go to the Upper Krishna (UKP) and Upper Bhadra projects, as it will help backward Kalyana Karnataka and central Karnataka regions. The two are also significant political blocs. The government will also seek assistance from the Centre for the UKP project in the erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region, which enjoys special status under the Constitution owing to its backwardness. P4
Yediyurappa is also expected to spell out populist schemes for the poor.
Former CM HD Kumaraswamy had allocated Rs 17,212 crore in the previous budget for water resources and Yediyurappa is likely to go well beyond that figure. "Priority will be given to irrigation and farmers," Yediyurappa had said recently. "I am making efforts to present a budget within the financial constraints."
he amounts are released once every two months, but the Centre had fallen behind on payments. PX
"There are indications that another payment will be made."
The state's optimism stems from the fact that the Centre's GST collection crossed the Rs 1 lakh crore-mark for four successive months till February.
However, the CM could still hike tax rates marginally. At a pre-budget meet on resource mobilisation where Yediyurappa is learnt to have expressed willingness to borrow funds, officials from the finance department advocated raising tax rates instead.
Comments
Consult the people of his constituency....is he going to have another round of elections for his constituency....weired........
This shows how desparate and feared bjp is . They are doing illegal and unconstitutional things now a days. They are spreading rumour that many congress and ohter party MLA and MPs are joining bjp. This is like day time robbery headed by chowkidar. bjp is sure that they will be kicked out by public soon and hence they are trying to mislead common indian by giving wrong informatin. they are trying to divert public attention from main issues of non employment + emptying of Govt money + death of farmer and poors due to powerty + shame in foreign countries etc etc.
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