In a conversation with South First, Byre Gowda also spoke of the initiatives introduced to streamline the Revenue Department.
Published Dec 05, 2023 | 10:30 AM ⚊ Updated Dec 10, 2023 | 5:45 PM
Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda (supplied)
Karnataka Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda feels that the needs of the state were almost totally ignored by the Union government in the 15th Finance Commission. However, he is hopeful of the problems being fixed in the upcoming Finance Commission.
“Karnataka was probably at the top of the hit list in the decision-making of the 15th Finance Commission. We hope some of those injustices will be rectified in the 16th Finance Commission,” he said.
In an exclusive conversation with South First, Byre Gowda also spoke about the initiatives introduced by the state government to streamline the Revenue Department, his expectations and concerns about the 16th Finance Commission, the poll guarantees of the Congress, the 10-day winter session of the state Assembly and much more. Excerpts from the interview:
Q. You have been visiting revenue offices across the state. What are your observations? How do you respond to the popular belief that corruption is rampant in the Revenue Department?
A. The Revenue Department holds a significant influence over people’s lives, including managing land resources, social security pensions, and various certificates. Despite efficiently handling 70 percent of the tasks, the remaining 30 percent faces delays and arbitrariness, and is causing frustration among the public. The history of mismanagement and occasional malpractices contribute to these issues.
Recognising the need for improvement, the department is actively addressing long-pending shortcomings by streamlining the processes and implementing reforms.
The primary challenges arise from missing records and the potential fraud due to that, and it requires judicious decision-making to balance expediency with public interest, especially in dealing with valuable government land.
The department acknowledges its responsibility to deliver good governance and is committed to fast-track reforms, aiming to overcome past neglect and provide better services to the public.
Q. A whopping 37,650 revenue court cases were pending in courts when you took over as Revenue Minister. Why were they pending? What measures are you taking to dispose of them?
A. I inherited a staggering backlog of 37,650 pending revenue court cases across the Tahsildar, Assistant Commissioner (AC), and Deputy Commissioner (DC) levels. The neglect of core responsibilities by past ministers resulted in over 60,000 cases lingering for more than five years in AC courts alone.
To address this, we systematically catalogued and set disposal timelines for these cases. Monitoring progress every 15 days, we’ve significantly reduced the five-year-plus pendency at the AC level from 32,787 to about 8,500 cases in just four months.
Our goal is to ensure no case remains unresolved for more than three months at the Tahsildar level and we will achieve this from December. From February-March, cases will cleared within six months at the AC and DC levels. Our focus is on efficient governance, not just symbolic gestures, by mobilising the administration to deliver justice and alleviate public grievances.
In the past, revenue ministers didn’t pay attention to the core activities of the department. They were paying more attention to public demonstrations of governance, like going and staying in a village instead of actually delivering governance where it matters.
There are 30,000-odd revenue villages in Karnataka. I can’t go to every village and make sure that things work. I need to make my system work, the department work, and government work in every corner of the state.
Q. The government has implemented four of the five guarantees, Has your government ignored other schemes and programmes to fund the guarantees? How do you respond to questions on fiscal prudence and additional financial burden?
A. Our government is committed to the welfare of the people and implemented four of the five guarantees, injecting money into the hands of those struggling at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
This demand-side economics approach aims to revive the economy by stimulating spending among those who need it the most. Contrary to a top-down approach, putting money in the hands of the less affluent results in immediate circulation within the economy, driving growth from the bottom up.
Whereas by putting money in wealthy hands, it will go to Swiss banks or other banks.
The positive impact is evident in Karnataka’s GST collections, which is growing at 19 percent, surpassing the national average of 15 percent. This reflects a thriving state economy. Despite the global economic slowdown, our proactive measures have kept the economy relatively healthy.
The Union government has reduced the income tax for the people who are at the top of the ladder. Corporate income tax used to be around 30 percent before this Union government came. Over a while, they reduced it to about 22 percent and then further to 16 percent in some cases.
They reduced the taxes on the rich and passed on those tax burdens to the common working people. Imposed far more additional taxes that didn’t exist earlier.
Money for the state is now getting generated from the working class of this country. As a result, income tax, direct taxes, which used to generate about 55 percent of the total tax in this country, came down to about 45 percent in 2022.
For the rest of the people, who were paying 45 percent of the tax earlier, their share has gone up to 55 percent. The tax burden has fallen more heavily on the common people in this country. We are now extracting more money from the working class than earlier.
Critically, our focus extends beyond infrastructural development, emphasising human development as genuine progress.
We address the challenges faced by the working class, such as soaring fuel and essential commodity prices, exacerbated by the Union government policies which favour the affluent.
Through guarantees, we redistribute funds to alleviate the burden on the common people, fostering a more equitable society, and supporting sustainable economic growth.
Q. The Opposition has been consistently accusing your government of corruption in transfers. Why is there so much suspicion over it?
A. Allegations have always been there and they will continue to be there. Some of them are mere allegations. However, there may be some truth in some of the allegations, but we need to be focused on where things are going wrong.
A simple exercise of hit-and-run or making false allegations does not solve the real problem. If the allegations are very pointed, we can take corrective measures. If it is just an exercise in political mudslinging, then no benefit will come out of it.
We are committed to better governance. This is that task that the chief minister has set for us and we are focused on that. If there is any wrong happening anywhere, we are open to correcting it and moving forward so that we can deliver better governance to the people.
Q. The Union Finance Minister has insisted that there are no dues whatsoever owed to Karnataka. Do you agree?
A. The Union government still owes about ₹1,140 crores of GST compensation to Karnataka. This compensation should have been paid last year itself. There was about ₹2,233 crore pending, and I raised this issue some months ago and, subsequently, about ₹1,190 crore was released.
The Union government responded that they needed audited accounts from the Accountant General. The audited statements were submitted by the Karnataka Auditor General way back in August 2023. Once we submitted our audit statement, that money should have been released automatically.
The compensation of ₹1,140 crore has been pending for more than one year.
Secondly, they have adjusted the IGST settlement amount to Karnataka. The government of India says that there was a shortfall in the IGST account which has been subsequently adjusted for all states.
There is no explanation on why the shortfall arose and the mechanism of calculation; there was no advanced notice either. If you cut ₹800 crore in a month from us, we need to be prepared for this.
There is no exchange of information or proper notice about the share calculation of IGST and the reasons behind it. Even in the absence of such clarity, if you deduct ₹800 crores without any notice, it would definitely affect our financial situation.
Thirdly, Karnataka is facing a drought. We have submitted a memorandum to the Union government for a relief of about ₹18,000 crore. The decision is still pending with them.
I have met officers in the government of India and also the Union minister of finance and requested them to take an early decision because relief should be provided in times of distress. People, especially farmers are in a state of distress.
We need to provide immediate relief and the Union government needs to decide on this early. This matter is pending with the Union government for a decision and release of money. We hope they will resolve the matter.
Q. What are your concerns and expectations from the 16th Finance Commission? As a state, Karnataka has consistently seen a drop in devolution.
A. We are very concerned about the 16th Finance Commission. In the 15th Finance Commission, we saw a cut of about 25 percent in the devolution of taxes to Karnataka. And that converts to almost about ₹20,000 crore per year. Additionally, the loss of GST compensation, which also used to be in the range of ₹20,000 crore per year.
Both these revenues are not in our hands. These are either in the hands of the Finance Commission or in the GST matters and cost us about ₹40,000 crore per year.
This loss of ₹40,000 crore per year has tied the hands of Karnataka in leading the development of the state and also in taking care of its people’s needs. It is the kind of loss no state can absorb. That is the loss we have suffered primarily on account of the 15th Finance Commission.
The 15th Finance Commission was very unfair and injudicious in assessing the needs of Karnataka. The brutal cut of 25 percent was imposed on us. Now, we have to see what the 16th Finance Commission is going to do. We are quite anxious about the 16th Finance Commission.
The 15th Finance Commission made two recommendations for special grants for Karnataka. One was ₹5,495 crore, which is yet to be released to Karnataka. Another recommendation for Bengaluru, of about ₹6,000 crore, has also not been released. About ₹11,495 crore that was recommended by the Finance Commission for Karnataka has not been honoured.
The Union India has withheld this amount and further added to the injury and damage caused by the Finance Commission. The Finance Commission and Union government have together set us back significantly.
We will try our best to convince the Finance Commission to restore our share in the tax devolution that existed in the 14th Finance Commission period. The financial situation will become increasingly precarious if the position during the 14th Finance Commission period is not restored.
Our efforts will be to convince the 16th Finance Commission to restore Karnataka’s share in the tax devolution. We will make all our efforts. I hope they will be receptive.
In the 15 Finance Commission, there was not a single representative from any of the southern states, which are the engines of growth in the country. I am at a loss to understand that from the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, and Kerala, they could not find even one person of eminence to be a member of the Finance Commission. I cannot accept this. I can only conclude that this was a deliberate exclusion of voices from the South.
Additionally, in the 15 Finance Commission, there was not a single representative from any of the southern states.
Southern states are the engine of growth in the country. Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are, respectively, the second and third-highest taxpayers in the country. Kerala leads in the Human Development Index in the whole country.
The state of Telangana, after Karnataka, is the next IT and technology power hub in the whole of Asia.
I am at a loss to understand that from the states of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Kerala, they could not find even one person of eminence to be a member of the Finance Commission.
I cannot accept this. I can only conclude that this was a deliberate exclusion of voices from the South. I cannot see any other reason. You can’t find anybody in Tamil Nadu, Kerala or Telangana? There’s not a single voice from the South of India in one of the most important decision-making bodies, which is the Finance Commission.
All of their representatives are from northern or western India. Not a single one from the South which contributes the highest revenue to the whole of the country.
Only injustice will flow from such a body where your voice is not even hurt. There was an injustice in the composition and conditionalities set for the 15 Finance Commission.
The population ratio also made sure that injustice was done to southern states because all the southern states have been very conscious in carrying out population management over the last 50 years, starting from 1970.
Some of the other states did not pay attention to population management. This was used to penalise the states which controlled the population, like the southern states. The states which did not pay attention to population control were rewarded in the 15th Finance Commission. This didn’t happen in any of the previous Finance Commissions from 1970 to 2020.
Every Finance Commission made sure that states which controlled their population were not penalised for it and the states which didn’t control the population were not rewarded for it.
Under the BJP government, they reset the rules of the game and penalised the states which controlled the population and rewarded the states which didn’t control the population. All these injustices were done in the 15 Finance Commission.
Karnataka was probably top of the hit list in the decision-making of the 15th Finance Commission. We hope some of those injustices will be rectified in the 16th Finance Commission.
Q. The winter session began on 4 December, While in Opposition you had opposed amendments to the Karnataka Land Reforms Act, Cattle Slaughter Bill, and APMC Act. Do you intend to reverse these?
A. In addition to the Bills, we have a drought in Karnataka and the government has taken all the steps necessary to come to the aid of the people. I’m sure that will be a major subject for debate in the Assembly. The government is prepared as we have done all the groundwork. We are well prepared.
We were the first one to declare drought. We were the first ones to submit a memorandum for the release to the Union government under NDRF. We are also releasing enough money to all the districts to take up contingency requirements during the drought, like drinking water and fodder management.
Around ₹1,000 crore is available at the district level for taking up all these contingency relief operations. Some legislation will also be made later. We hope it will be a fruitful debate in the interest of the people.
We welcome criticism, but it must be constructive. It is in the interest of the people that we are looking forward to the session.
The respective departments are deliberating on reversing the Bills that we opposed. I don’t like to speak on behalf of any other department. I’m sure those departments are deliberating on these issues. They will make appropriate decisions.
