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Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy presented a farm-centric Budget with a slew of benefits for farmers.
The State Budget comes with a heavy allocation of ₹46,853 crore for farm sector encompassing agriculture, horticulture, water resources, animal husbandry, fisheries, co-operation and power subsidy for agri-pumpsets.
Farm subsidies
The Chief Minister said, “Our government has provided ₹962.96 crore for horticulture, ₹132.43 crore for sericulture, ₹1,583.13 crore for animal husbandry and ₹180.95 crore for fisheries which are activities related to agriculture, as advancement of farmers will not happen by giving priority only to agriculture.”
He further said that ₹2,685 crore is being provided for the welfare of milk producers. Besides, ₹11,250 crore is being provided as rural electrification subsidy, and ₹15,903 crore for irrigation schemes.
“Thus, a total ₹46,853 crore is provided for comprehensive welfare of the farmers.”
The Chief Minister, however, increased rates on beer with additional excise duty going up from 150 per cent to 175 per cent, additional excise duty on draught beer from 115 per cent to 150 per cent, excise duty on beer manufactured in a micro-brewery from the existing ₹5 per bulk litre (BL) to ₹10 and the additional excise duty raised from ₹12.50 per BL to ₹25 per BL.
The Budget also proposes to increase the excise duty on low alcoholic beverages (LAB) from ₹5 per BL to ₹10 per BL and the additional excise duty from 122 per cent to 150 per cent.
Giving a picture of the State’s economy, the Chief Minister said, “It is expected that the Gross State Domestic Product will grow at the rate of 9.6 per cent during 2018-19 against the rate of 10.4 per cent prevailing during 2017-18. “
The State saw a negative growth of 4.8 per cent in the agricultural sector because of the drought situation prevailing due to scarce rain in the State. For this reason, a small decline in the growth rate of the State Domestic Product is expected. However, good growth rates of 7.4 per cent and 12.3 per cent are expected in the industrial and services sectors, respectively in 2018-19 compared to 4.7 per cent and 12.3 per cent, respectively, for the year 2017-18.
Revenue/expenditure
The total receipts are estimated at ₹2.30 lakh crore during 2019-20. The Budget Estimates envisage revenue receipts of ₹1.81 lakh crore and capital receipts of ₹48,876 crore, including borrowings of ₹48,601 crore. The total expenditure is estimated at ₹2.34 lakh crore consisting of revenue expenditure of ₹1.81 lakh crore, capital expenditure of ₹42,584 crore and debt repayment of ₹9,964 crore.
The revenue surplus is estimated at ₹258 crore. The fiscal deficit is expected to be ₹42,051 crore, which is 2.65 per cent of GSDP.
The total liabilities at ₹3.27 lakh crore at the end of 2019-20 are estimated to be 20.60 per cent of GSDP. This is within the limit of 25 per cent for 2019-20 mandated in the Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act.
“Therefore, all these three fiscal parameters are within the mandate of the Karnataka Fiscal Responsibility Act and this reflects fiscal prudence of the State,” Kumaraswamy said.
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