Karnataka CM Yediyurappa presents state budget for the FY 2020-21

On March 05, 2020, Karnataka Chief Minister (CM), Bookanakere Siddalingappa Yediyurappa ,who also holds the  finance ministry portfolio, has presented the state budget for the fiscal year 2020-21 at Vidhana Soudha, the Karnataka State Legislative Assembly. It is his 7^th budget as the CM.
Highlights of the budget speech:
i.The State government will soon write to the Centre on financial allocation to the Centre being cut in the 15^th Finance Commission.

Petrol and diesel prices to go up

• The state Government has increased the Petrol and diesel prices with effect from April 1,2020 as the budget has proposed 3% increase in VAT(value-added tax) on both the most consumed fuels (VAT on petrol increased to 35 % from 32 % and on diesel to 24% from 21 %).
  With this, there will be an increase in the price of petrol by Rs 1.60 per litre and that of diesel by Rs 1.59 per litre.
• Similarly, the budget has also proposed to increase existing rates of Additional Excise Duty on Indian Made Liquor (IML) by 6 % in all 18 slabs with the aim to increase the revenue.

Government schemes
Rs 2600 crore for Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Yojana(PM-KISAN), Rs 900 crore to implement crop insurance scheme- Fasal Bima Yojana, Rs 500 crore for Kalasa Banduri Project and Rs 2 Crore for Mahila Meenugarike Sabalikarana Yojana.
An outlay of Rs.8,772 crore has been allocated for Bengaluru development during the fiscal year-FY 2020-21.

A child budget for the first time

•  In a 1^st, the Karnataka state government has come up with a child budget.
• For the welfare of the children below the age of 18 years, the state will consolidate all policies and programmes (a total of 279 programmes involving Rs. 36340 crore) relating to them ,which consists of Rs. 15.28 % of the total volume of the budget.
• For this, a total of 7 new vala mandiras will be deployed in cooperation with the central government.

Women safety portal:

• The state will launch a woman safety portal with the aim to check all the programmes of the Department of Women and Child Development (WCD) are delivered in a better & transparent manner.
• A baseline survey of transgenders will also be conducted across the state by the Karnataka State Women Development corporation at the cost of Rs. 70 lakh.

Proposals in the education sector
The state announced that Saturdays to be no-bag days for students & English medium sections will be opened at 400 Urdu medium schools in the state soon.
276 Karnataka public schools will receive Rs 100 crore for infrastructure development.

Allocation for peripheral ring road:
In order to reduce the traffic pressure in the state,the state allocated Rs 14,500 crore towards developing the peripheral ring road in the city.

Allocation for Bengaluru city:

• The state allocated an outlay of Rs.8344 crore for implementation of “Mukhyamantrigala Nava Nagaroththana” scheme for the development of Bengaluru city, Rs.999 crore for Solid Waste Management of Bengaluru under “Shubhra Bengaluru Scheme”, Rs.417 crore for comprehensive development of lakes of Bengaluru under “Shubhra Bengaluru” and “Mukyamanthrigala Navanagarothana” scheme.
• Allocation of Rs.200 crore to finish the major stormwater drain network, Rs.1,000 crore for restoration of deteriorated roads of 110 villages that will be merged in Bengaluru in 2 years.
• The state will set up 4 electric crematoriums across Bengaluru.
• A new fleet of 2390 new buses including 890 electric buses to be added to Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation.
• Allocation of Rs.200 crore to Road Safety Fund has been made to implement various road safety activities.·
• Deploying Vehicle Location Tracking System in passenger and goods transport vehicles with a cost of Rs.20 crore.
• The state will get finish the rejuvenation of T.G. Halli Water Resources by the end of September 2021.
• A total of 24 metro stations in this city  will be deployed with road cross-over facility for pedestrians other than metro commuters.

Honour for founder of Bengaluru – ‘Nadaprabhu Kempegowda’:

In order to honor the founder of Bengaluru “Nadaprabhu Kempegowda” , a bronze statue will be installed with a cost of Rs 66 crore on the premises of the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), in Bangalore.

Promoting AI research:

The State Budget has allocated an amount of Rs 60 crore to promote the research based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the famous Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore.

Financial Assistance:

The state will provide Rs 25,000 to unemployed Scheduled Castes (SC)/ Scheduled Tribes (ST) youth to aid them to get purchase bikes to equip them to work as delivery boys.

Other key Highlights:

• Rs 500 crore has been allocated to Shivamogga City for the development of Jog Falls, which is one of the highest waterfalls in India.
• The state will remove the film city project from Mysuru city
• Proposal to provide free land for Belagavi-Dharwad new rail line project via Kittur with the state bearing 50% of expenditure.
• Two metro lines of a total length of 12.8km on Mysuru Road up to Kengeri & on Kanakapura Road, up to Anjanapura township will be extended.
• Allocation of Rs 1,500 crore for the Yettinahole project,which involves the transfer of water of the Nethravati river located in Hassan district to other districts including  Chikkaballapur, Tumakuru.
• The state University of Agricultural and Horticultural Sciences(UAHS), Shivamogga will start functioning from its own campus soon.
• The budget reduced the flat costing less than Rs 20 lakh from 5 % to 2%.
• Twin towers building will be constructed with 25 floors at a cost of Rs 400 crores for all govt departments to function in one building
• Allocation of Rs 25 crore for Vishwakarma Development Board, Rs 10 crore for Arya Vaishya Development Board, Rs 9,000 crore for farmers’ welfare & Rs 200 crore assistance for organic farming & Rs 100 crore to develop lakes has been made.
• The state allocated Rs 600 crores (Rs 100 crore each for 6 years period) to procure new diesel buses for Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC).
• Allocation of Rs 1,000 crore to 110 villages in the outskirts of capital city Bengaluru, which has been under the limits of civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP).
• The state will consider horticulture sector as an industry with the aim to improve this sector in near future.
• The state will prove compensation to 6.45 lakh farmers in the state affected by the devastating floods.

About Karnataka:
Capital– Bengaluru (Executive Branch).
Governor– Vajubhai Rudabhai Vala.
National parks(NP)– Nagarhole NP, Bandipur NP, Bannerghatta NP, Kudremukh NP