Karnataka Budget: CM Siddaramaiah to present 1st budget since Congress assumed power; here’s all you need to know

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will present the state budget today i.e. July 7 at 12 pm, the first after Congress assumed power in the state. This would be Siddaramaiah's seventh Budget as a chief minister. 

The budget session of the Karnataka Legislature began on 3 July with Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot emphasising on the need to eradicate corruption in the state, and the ruling Congress and opposition BJP gearing up for a battle both inside and outside the Assembly.

Earlier in the month of February Former Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai had presented the State Budget for the financial year 2023-24. 

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Ahead of the Budget, State's Minister HK Patil said, "Natural that there are people's expectations. There also have a lot of confidence in us. Congress party has built that credibility in Karnataka & also in the country. I am sure that we will be able to deliver and people will be happy after the Budget."

The budget assumes significance as the CM has to make provisions for the five guarantees, which his Congress party had announced before the assembly elections.

The implementation of the five poll guarantees is expected to cost the state exchequer an estimated ₹60,000 crore annually. The Chief Minister had already said that some strict austerity measures will be announced. He has hinted that the size of the budget this year could be about ₹3.35 lakh crore.

On Tuesday, Karnataka Assembly witnessed an uproar scenes due to protests by the BJP against the ruling Congress leading to four adjournments by Speaker U T Khader. As planned, the opposition BJP staged protests inside and outside the Assembly alleging injustice and cheating by the ruling Congress in the name of five guarantees. Yediyurappa charged the Congress with 'misleading' people through their five guarantees. "Our agitation is against the failure of fulfilling the five guarantees. We are also opposing the government's stand to withdraw the anti-conversion and anti-cow slaughter laws, which our government had introduced in the past," he said.

The Karnataka government is likely to table a bill scrapping the anti-conversion law called Karnataka Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, 2022, which was promulgated by the previous BJP government. 

According to some Congress insiders, the government will also introduce a bill scrapping the anti-cow slaughter law called Karnataka Prevention of Slaughter and Preservation of Cattle Act, 2020, news agency PTI has reported.

The government may also introduce a bill repealing the Karnataka Land Reforms (Amendment) Act, besides another amendment pertaining to the Agricultural Produce Marketing (Regulation and Development) (Amendment) Act, 2020. 

Pandemonium is expected when the Congress presents the bill repealing the anti-conversion and anti-cow slaughter laws as the BJP is likely to protest it vehemently. Reacting to questions on the Cow slaughter bill, the CM had said "Karnataka Prevention of Cow Slaughter and Cattle Preservation Act, 1964 already existed and an amendment was brought to the same."

The exercise to ‘de-saffronise’ textbooks may also invite the BJP’s ire during the session. The Siddaramaiah government will make budgetary provisions for its five guarantee schemes, namely Gruha Jyoti (offering up to 200 units free electricity for residential purposes), Gruha Lakshmi (promising ₹2,000 to women heads of BPL/APL ration card holders), Anna Bhagya (Promising 10 kg rice to each member of BPL ration card holders), Yuva Nidhi (offering ₹3,000 to unemployed graduates and ₹1,500 to unemployed diploma holders who passed this academic year, for 24 months) and ‘Shakti’ offering free bus rides to Karnataka women across Karnataka in non-luxury government buses. 

(With inputs from PTI)