Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who has presented his tenth Budget as Finance Minister and third Budget as Chief Minister for 2015-16 on Friday, focused on rural development and urban infrastructure. The 13-day Budget Session of the Karnataka Assembly which began with the Budget presentation has envisaged Rs911 crore surplus.
Siddaramaiah continued his appeasement politics and announced new schemes for SC/STs, backward classes and minorities. The Chief Minister has hit two targets with a single bullet, with earmarking over Rs16,000 crore for SCs and STs in his Budget for many development schemes, silencing the cry for his replacement with a Dalit as the Chief Minister within the Congress.
Siddaramaiah said in his Budget speech that total receipts are estimated to be Rs1,39,476 crore during 2015-16. The Budget estimates envisage revenue receipts of Rs1,16,360 crore and capital receipts of Rs166 crore, including borrowings of Rs22,950 crore.
The total expenditure is estimated to be Rs1,42,534 crore, consisting of revenue expenditure of Rs1,15,450 crore and capital expenditure of Rs20,564 crore and debt repayment of Rs5,788 crore.
Fiscal deficit is expected to be Rs20,220 crore, which is 2.75 per cent of GSDP. Total Rs1,80,815 crore liabilities at the end of 2015-16 are estimated to be 24.56 per cent of GSDP. Siddaramaiah announced that he was increasing additional excise duty on Indian Made Foreign liquor (IMFl) to achieve excise revenue target of Rs15,200 crore by March 2016.