Liquor prices set to Increase; Education Spend down
Bengaluru : Karnataka Congress in the run up to the Lok Sabha election, due in less than a year, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Presented his 14th budget overall and first for the current Congress dispensation that will please a broad swathe of people, Siddaramaiah banks on booze to fund guarantee schemes as Perhaps the only segment that has reason to the unhappy is buyers of alcoholic beverages, prices of which will rise by 10% to 20% . The hike will make Karnataka the most expensive state for spirits in India.
Siddaramaiah who is also the finance minister, said in his budget speech that Karnataka had always tried to balance development and social justice..He slammed the opposition BJP for describing the Congress’ five guarantees as freebies, and said his party was forced to declining real incomes that common people are suffering. “Though the major share of GST collected comes from the bottom 60% people of society, most profits of the economic system go to the top 10% people of society. Therefore, pro-people governments should follow the policies that redistribute the resources among the poor,” He added.
Siddaramaiah also said, The guarantees would put Rs 48,000 to Rs 60,000 a year into the pockets of each of 1.3 crore families and will cost government Rs 52,000 crore. Presenting budget siddaramaiah particularly named delivery workers in e-commerce and announced insurance cover of Rs 4 lakh for gig workers, perhaps a first for any state. He said, “In order to provide social security to the gig workers in the unorganised sector, ie, employed as full-time or party-time deliver personnel in e-commerce companies like Swiggy, Zomato, Amazon etc insurance facility of total Rs 4 lakh will be provided.”
Some of the highlight of the budget is Additional excise duty on Indian made Liquor to go up 20% across all 18 price slabs and 10% on beer; effective from August 1. Government to hike guidance value for immovable properties across the state this year and levy of lifetime tax on certain categories of vehicles. CM reiterates plans to replace the existing National Education Policy (NEP) with new one. To help the semiconductor industry Karnataka government to develop a 100-acre technology innovation park at kadugodi in bengaluru.
Siddaramaiah said, Poll promises are not a burden on government. While it has forced us to present a deficit budget, it is the financial indiscipline by the BJP that has hurt us the most and during his marathon budget speech he slams previous BJP govt and Centre 33 times .We will also launch 76 new schemes. State budget size up from Rs 2.6 lakh crore in 2022-2023 to Rs 3.27 lakh crore in 2023-2024, a Rs 67,027 crore increase. Government has decided to reopen Indira Canteens with a new menu card and even increase the number of outlets in bengaluru city and across the state and funds earmarked 100 crore for the same, he added. Indira Catneen s was a key project of the earlier siddaramaiah –led government and was launched with an eye on wooing urban poor. He added.
