Bengaluru (Karnataka) : Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sought to reassure the people by promising to spend Rs 52,000 Cr on the five election guarantees in the budget 2023-24 he presented in the State Assembly here today for the remaining nine months of the financial year. This is the first budget that the Congress government presented after its spectacular victory in the May 10 Assembly elections earlier this year.
The Chief Minister proposed a 20 percent excise duty hike on liquor, including beer, across all slabs so that the Excise Department would be able to collect Rs 36,000 Cr during the year. This was one of the key steps taken by the Congress Government to mop up financial resources to fund the implementation of its five poll guarantees.
With this, Siddaramaiah presented a record 14th budget in which he sought to highlight the Congress party's five poll promises that were tipped as intended to benefit 1.3 crore households across the State. The government's plan was to provide an average Rs 4,000 to Rs 5,000 per month to every targetted family. Today's budget was presented with an outlay of Rs 3.27 lakh cr with main focus on the Congress party's election sops.
The five 'election-winning' promises included free electricity upto 200 units, free bus travel for women, 10 kg free foodgrain to the poor, Rs 3,000 unemployment allowance and Rs 2,000 for the woman head of the house. In the 2023 Karnataka polls, the Congress snatched victory from the BJP by winning 135 seats in the 244-member Assembly. The BJP stood second with 66 seats and the JD(S) 19.
After today's budget presentation, Siddaramaiah created a new record for presenting the State budget for the highest number of times. Siddaramaiah presented his 14th State budget today thereby overtaking former CM late Ramakrishna Hegde, who had presented 13 budgets.
Other Budget highlights:
Rs 70,427 Cr for women-centric schemes
Rs 68,479 Cr for welfare
20 percent duty hike on liquor
Rs 51,229 Cr for children-specific programmes
Rs 33,700 Cr for agriculture, allied sectors
National Education Policy to be replaced with State Education Policy
Rs 50 Cr to protect 40,000 Waqf properties
Rs 25 Cr grant for Visvesvaraya University, Bengaluru
