Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that the State’s budget would be presented on July 7. It is to be looked at how the government will allocate the funds given that it has committed to the implementation of its five poll promises.

The CM said that the budget session will begin on July 3. While the previous government had presented a budget of ₹39,782 lakh crore, Siddaramaiah said that more details on the size of the budget will be revealed later. He was speaking to the reporters at Davangere. 

Addressing the issues of electricity rate hikes, he said that the increase in electricity rates was already decided by REC and it is a previous decision that was made, which is being implemented now. 

Previously the BJP government had presented a revenue surplus budget of ₹402 crore. Currently, Karnataka’s overall liabilities stand at ₹5.6-lakh crore, according to the recent budget, and it was estimated that an additional ₹1.7-lakh crore will also be borrowed.

Siddaramaiah, who has previously presented 13 State budgets, needs to make accommodations for the cost of freebies and even strike a balance with allocation to developmental projects. According to analyst estimates the total cost of all the freebies will amount to ₹65,082 crore. However, Congress leaders at different points have said they expect the cost to be in the range of ₹40,000 crore to ₹50,000 crore. 

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