Ridiculing Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa for projecting himself as a farmers’ leader by sporting a green shawl on important occasions, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah on Wednesday said the content of the Budget had showed that there was “a saffron shawl beneath the green one”.
Participating in a debate on the State Budget, Mr. Siddaramaiah alleged that the Budget had let down farmers, needy, and downtrodden sections by not taking up any prominent schemes for them.
“Whenever we used to question the Chief Minister on the plight of farmers and the downtrodden, he would ask us to wait for the State Budget and insisted that the Budget would give an answer. But, the Budget does not have any answer,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
Pointing out that there was a reduction of Central funds to the tune of ₹11,887 crore in terms of grants by 15th Finance Commission and GST compensation, he wondered how the Chief Minister, who also holds the finance portfolio, would raise resources to fund development schemes.
Pointing out that there were indications of the collection of State’s own taxes reducing by ₹4,000 to ₹5,000 crore, he warned that tough days were ahead for the State.
The coming years were bound to be very tough for Karnataka as the compensation towards losses on account of GST would end by 2022, he noted.
Funding development schemes would be a challenge in the coming years in the wake of shortfall in resources, he said. Making it clear that it was not possible to make up for shortfall in resources by resorting to borrowings, he said the norms stipulated that borrowings could not exceed 25% of the GSDP.
