Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will be presenting his first budget in this tenure on March 5. Overall, it will be his seventh budget presentation.
The legislature’s budget session will commence from March 2.
As the Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister in the erstwhile BJP-JD(S) coalition government led by H.D. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Yediyurappa had presented the budgets of 2006-07 and 2007-08. Later, as the Chief Minister of the first BJP government, he presented budgets between 2008-09 and 2011-12.
However, in this tenure, Mr. Yediyurappa did not present his budget after taking over. While former Chief Minister Mr. Kumaraswamy presented the 2019-20 budget, the B.S. Yediyurappa-led BJP government first sought a vote on account in July. However, political uncertainty and later large-scale devastation due to floods and rains across Karnataka had forced him to avoid presenting a new budget, and the legislature passed the one presented by Mr. Kumaraswamy with some modifications.
Five-day session
Meanwhile, the legislature session, which was to start from January 10 for 10 days, has been postponed and also truncated. It will now be held for five days from February 17 during which the Governor will address the joint session.
According to Law Minister J.C. Madhuswamy, the session was postponed because the Chief Minister will be participating in the proceedings of World Economic Forum at Davos from January 21 to 24.
