Siddu slams BJP govt over huge borrowings, warns of debt trap

NT Correspondent

Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah said he was very disappointed with the maiden budget presented by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai last week.

Speaking on the Budget 2022-23 here on Monday, Siddaramaiah said he had a lot of expectation from Bommai’s budget but his hopes had proved wrong. He would not have felt bad if a leader with a RSS background had presented such a budget. But Bommai who did not have any links with the RSS or BJP till 2008 when he joined the saffron party, had presented a budget which seems to have been more influenced by the RSS than the thoughts of his father and former CM, S.R. Bommai, he said.

The BJP came to power three years ago but nothing has been achieved in this period. Bommai’s budget looks more like a list of assurances to the people of Karnataka keeping in view the 2023 Assembly elections. The government has cited the pandemic as the reason to cover up its mistakes and justify the low tax collection. This had made it even amend the Fiscal Deficit Policy.

“I will not agree with the excuse that low tax collection during the pandemic period has made the government borrow loans. If the BJP government is so prompt, then it should have told people about the promises made to them before coming to power and the number of promises fulfilled till date. The CM owes an explanation to the people. Concealing facts happens only in a dictatorship and sharing information is democracy”.

The size of Bommai’s budget is Rs 2.65 lakh crore and the royalty deficit is Rs 14,699 crore in 2022-23. The state’s borrowings till March next year since 1947 is Rs 5.18 lakh crore. So the BJP within three years of coming to power, has borrowed Rs 2.64 lakh crore. The state has to pay an interest of Rs 27,000 crore this year, Rs 29,397 crore next year and this must be paid along with the principal amount of Rs 14,000 crore. If this continues, the state will have to pay Rs 42,789 crore by 2025-26 for debt servicing, he said.

Disagreeing with the government’s claim that the pandemic was the reason for increased borrowings, Siddaramaiah said the government had spend Rs 5,300 crore in the year 2020-21 to deal with the pandemic and Rs 2,240 crore during 2021-22. The borrowings by the state had increased due to delay in release of funds by the Union government.

If the gover nment resorts to reckless borrowing, it will have to pay more interest and no money would be available for developmental works, he added.