Karnataka Opposition criticises Budget presented by Siddaramaiah for tax burden and ‘lack of vision’

Terming it as a disappointing budget, JD(S) leader and former Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy told reporters: “This budget lacks vision. In the entire budget speech, the chief minister hit out at the Union government and the previous government.”

He added: “If they continue to criticise the Union government, why will it cooperate with the state? The state government has to develop a cordial relationship with the Centre.”

He also said: “There was no necessity to incur over ₹80,000 crore in borrowings. The budget size has been increased to ₹3.27 lakh crore. What was the necessity to present a deficit budget?”

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‘Cheap politics’

Stating that the budget presentation was used for cheap politics by the chief minister, Yediyurappa pointed out: “In his three-hour-long budget, Siddaramaiah criticised the financial policies of BJP-led Union government and the previous BJP government in the state.”

He added: “The chief minister sidelined the financial stability and progress achieved under my and former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai’s tenure and highlighted only failures. With this, he used the budget presentation platform to do cheap politics. Instead of a budget speech, it was more like a political speech.”

ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ ಶ್ರೀ @siddaramaiah ನವರು ಇಂದು ಮಂಡಿಸಿರುವ ಬಜೆಟ್, ರಾಜ್ಯದ ಸಮಗ್ರ ಅಭಿವೃದ್ಧಿಯ ಕಲ್ಪನೆ ಇರದ, ಜನಸಾಮಾನ್ಯರ ಮೇಲೆ ತೆರಿಗೆ ಹೊರೆ ಹೊರೆಸುವ ಬಜೆಟ್ ಆಗಿದೆ.

ಈ ಕುರಿತು ನನ್ನ ವಿವರವಾದ ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆಯನ್ನು ಇಲ್ಲಿ ಹಂಚಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತಿದ್ದೇನೆ. pic.twitter.com/3z41pkFFN6

— B.S.Yediyurappa (@BSYBJP) July 7, 2023

He also said: “The Congress government claimed it would implement all the five poll guarantees in the very first Cabinet meeting, but this budget shows that the government needs this entire fiscal year to implement it.”

Yediyurappa continued: “The budget also lacked clarity on how the government would arrange for funds to the tune of ₹52,000 crore to implement the five guarantees.”

He also said: “The grand old party has already conned people by imposing conditions on the guarantees. It is cent percent sure that it will hike the tax tariffs in the coming days, which will cost the common man. There are also mentions of a tax hike in this budget.”

Pointing to the diminishing fund allocations, Yediyurappa said: “The government has reduced the budget allocation for agriculture and also neglected the health and irrigation sector.”

He added: “The Congress carried out a padayatra for the Mekedatu Yojana, but has not allocated a single rupee for the irrigation project. The government has completely neglected the projects of the Water Resource and Minor Irrigation Department.”

The BJP leader continued: “In the previous BJP government’s budget, we allocated a whopping ₹22,854 crore for irrigation projects, but this government has reduced it to ₹19,000 crore.”

He also hit out at the government on its decision to scrap the National Education Policy and not mentioning anything on the7th Pay Commission for state government employees and implementation of the Old Pension Scheme.

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‘Politically motivated, reverse-gear budget’

Criticising Siddaramaiah, interim-Opposition leader and former Karnataka chief minister Bommai said: “This is a politically motivated, reverse-gear budget that hates the previous government and the Union government.”

He told reporters in Bengaluru: “The chief minister, instead of talking about today’s financial situation, the actual situation, talked about old programmes, which means that he is in the past. It is a political budget.”

ದ್ವೇಷದ ಬಜಾರಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರೀತಿಯ ಅಂಗಡಿ ತೆರೆದ್ದಿದ್ದೇವೆಂದು ಬೊಗಳೆ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿದ್ದ ಈ #ATMSarkara , ಬಜೆಟ್ ನಲ್ಲಿಯೂ ತನ್ನ ರಾಜಕೀಯ ಪ್ರೇರಿತ ದ್ವೇಷವನ್ನು ವ್ಯಕ್ತ ಪಡಿಸಿ, ಆಯವ್ಯಯದ ಘನತೆಗೆ ಮಸಿ ಬಳೆದಿದೆ.

ವಾಸ್ತವ ಹಾಗೂ ಭವಿಷ್ಯದ ಸ್ಥಿತಿಗತಿಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟತೆ ನೀಡದೇ, ಭೂತಕಾಲದ ವಿಷಯಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಪ್ರಸ್ತಾಪಿಸಿ ಕಾಲಹರಣ ಮಾಡಿದೆ.
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— Basavaraj S Bommai (@BSBommai) July 7, 2023

He added: “If you see the difference between the Governor’s speech and the budget, this is a lying government.”

Bommai claimed: “The whole world is celebrating the handling of Covid-19 by India. The country is proud of our state’s handling of Covid-19. The Union government helped a lot during the Covid-19 pandemic. Our government also spent around ₹2,000 crore.”

He continued: “We helped those who suffered due to Covid-19. How much tax did we collect? There is a record of how much grant the Centre gave to Karnataka.”

Bommai also said: “If you look at this budget, it has more space for criticism. The cost of guarantee schemes will be ₹52,000 crore. It’s already been six months. This year only about 25 thousand crore more is needed. There was no need to increase taxes.”

He alleged: “In the name of implementation of guarantee schemes, this budget has placed a huge burden on the common man. Our debt was ₹77,000 crore. Now they have increased it to ₹88,000 crore. The budget size is ₹3.27 lakh crore. We presented a surplus budget, but they have budgeted a deficit.”

The BJP leader added: “There is no financial discipline in the budget. This is a reverse-gear budget, which is disappointing for the people of the state.”

He said: “There is no mention of our plans anywhere. We had proposed free education for all. There are no schemes for women and youth empowerment. This is an anti-people, development-killing budget that does not have any new promises, and does not favour the working-class people.”