Comments
Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, who presented the maiden Budget of his coalition government on Thursday, increased the duty on petrol and diesel by 2 per cent, imposed 4 per cent additional excise duty (AED) on Indian-made liquor (IML) and increased taxation on consumption of electricity from existing 6 per cent to 9 per cent.
The increase in taxes will result in petrol prices going up by ₹1.14 a litre and that of diesel by ₹1.12 a litre. Even then, petrol and diesel prices will be lower in Karnataka than in the neighbouring States, the Chief Minister said.
Revenue target
Kumaraswamy said a revenue target of ₹18,750 crore was fixed for the Excise Department for 2018-19 and by June-end, a total of ₹4,674 crore has been collected.
“I propose to increase the existing rates of Additional Excise Duty on IML by 4 percent on all 18 slabs. With this and with effective enforcement and regulatory measures, the department would be achieving the revised target of ₹19,750 crore for the financial year 2018-19,” the Chief Minister said.
Tax on power consumption
The taxation on consumption of electricity is proposed to be increased from existing 6 per cent to 9 per cent. The rate of taxation on consumption of captive energy is proposed to be increased from 10 paise per unit to 20 paise per unit.
The government is also planning to raise resources from private service vehicles. “In motor vehicle taxes, an increase of 50 per cent is proposed for private service vehicles based on sq mt of floor area. Existing rates of ₹1,100, ₹1,200, ₹1,300 and ₹1,500 will be increased to ₹1,650, ₹1,800, ₹1,950 and ₹2,250 respectively,” he said
Kumaraswamy said the coalition government would continue with several pro-people programmes initiated by the previous Siddaramaiah government. The Budget will see an increase of ₹9,307 crore over ₹2,09,181 crore Budget presented by Siddaramaiah in February.
Budget estimates
The total receipts are estimated at ₹2,13,734 crore during 2018-19. The budget estimates envisage revenue receipts of ₹1,66,396 crore and capital receipts of ₹47,338 crore, including borrowings of ₹47,134 crore. The total expenditure is estimated to be ₹2,18,488 crore, consisting of revenue expenditure of ₹1,66,290 crore, capital expenditure of ₹41,063 crore and debt repayment of ₹11,136 crore. Revenue surplus is estimated at ₹106 crore. Fiscal deficit is expected to be ₹40,753 crore, which is 2.89 per cent of the GSDP. Total liabilities at ₹2,92,220 crore at the end of 2018-19 are estimated to be 20.75 per cent of GSDP. This is within the limit of 25 per cent for 2018-19 mandated in Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act.
Resource mobilisation
The States Own Tax Revenue for 2018-19, including GST compensation, is estimated to be ₹1,06,621 crore, which is an increase of 16.25 per cent over the revised estimate of 2017-18. Non-tax revenues are estimated at ₹8,181 crore .
The State government expects to receive ₹36,215 crore by way of the share in Central taxes in the Budget 2018-19 and another ₹15,379 crore as grants from the Centre. These revenue receipts are estimated to be supplemented by gross borrowings of ₹47,134 crore, non-debt capital receipts of ₹75 crore and recovery of loans to the extent of ₹129 crore.
Various State-owned boards and corporations, and the local bodies are expected to mobilise ₹16,760 crore through internal resource generation and borrowings made on the basis of their own financial strength and own revenues.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.