Karnataka CM makes room for poll promises in Budget; liquor to get costlier

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, after storming back to power in the State, presented the Budget with a total outlay of ₹3.27-lakh crore. The populist Budget saw allocations in line with poll promises, hike in liquor excise duty and some schemes making a comeback.

The government estimates total receipts at ₹3,24,478 crore, of which revenue receipts account for around ₹2.38-lakh crore and capital receipts at ₹86,068 crore.

Poll guarantees

As much as ₹52,000 crore has been set apart — expected to benefit about 1.30 crore families — towards meeting the five guarantees that the Congress promised in its election manifesto. “This is done with the objective of providing a Universal Basic Income for our citizens. This is the first such initiative in the entire country,” said the CM, who now holds the record for presenting the most State Budgets in Karnataka, after former CM Ramakrishna Hegde.

With the poll guarantees getting a generous allocation, the targets of all revenue-generating departments have been hiked — While the commercial tax department now has a target of ₹1,01,000 crore, compared with ₹92,000 crore previously, the excise department’s target has only been marginally hiked to ₹36,000 crore (₹35,000 crore). Targets of the stamps & registration and transport departments, too, have been raised.

Kamsale Ravi from Mysuru brings a sheep to Vidhana Soudha premises to gift to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as he presents the 14th Budget in Bengaluru | Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

Excise duty

The government will also be hiking the additional excise duty on Indian Made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) by 20 per cent on all 18 slabs. Additionally, the duty on beer will be hiked from 175 per cent to 185 per cent. Following the announcement, shares of liquor stocks — United Spirits, Globus Spirits, and Radico Khaitan, among others — tumbled on the exchange.

Further, as much as ₹30,000 crore was allotted to ‘Namma Metro’ and Bengaluru suburban railway projects in a bid to reduce the traffic congestion in the State capital. Additionally, ₹800 crore was allocated towards white topping of 100 km of city roads and ₹263 crore for a new flyover connecting SMVT Bengaluru railway station, among other investments.

In order to provide social security to gig workers in the unorganised sector, employed in e-commerce companies such as Swiggy, Zomato and Amazon, the government will be providing an insurance facility amounting to a total of ₹4 lakh.

The CM also brought back the scheme of distributing eggs to school-going children, which was stopped by the previous BJP regime. As many as 60 lakh school students in government and aided schools are expected to benefit from the scheme which provides for supplementary nutrition.

Siddaramaiah, in his address, also took pot shots at the previous Bommai government. He noted that the State’s GSDP growth dropped to 7.9 per cent in 2022-23 compared with 11 per cent during 2021-22, and the FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows decreased to $10 billion in 2022-23 from $22 billion the previous year.