Will Karnataka Government's Budget be beneficiary for the people?

Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy who was keen on presenting a full-fledged budget instead of a supplementary budget as suggested by former CM Siddaramaiah, announced a Rs 34,000 crore farm loan waiver scheme on Thursday. Meanwhile the much anticipated farm loan waiver will nullify loans up to Rs 2 lakh per family taken from recognized financial institutions and defaulted up to December 31, 2017. Further, as an encouragement to the non-defaulting farmers, the farmers will credit the repaid loan amount or Rs 25,000 to them, whichever is less, announced the CM.

Accordingly the farm loan waiver was along expected lines after Kumaraswamy had himself promised to waive loans farmers within 24 hours of coming to power. CM Kumaraswamy has tried to balance the spending on farm loan waiver with increased taxation on fuel, alcohol, vehicles and power usage and this will certainly hurt the common man. Furthermore in order to meet a revised excise revenue target of Rs 19,750 crore, the budget has proposed Additional Excise Duty on Indian Made Liquor by 4% on all 18 slabs.

Moreover the taxation on consumption of electricity increased to 9% and the rate of taxation on consumption of captive energy increased to 20 paise per unit. Reports added the motor vehicle taxes have also been increased by 50% based on square metre of floor area while sales tax on petrol and diesel will be raised by 2%, which means that petrol and diesel will be taxed at 32% and 21% respectively.