Siddaramaiah accuses BJP of betrayal

Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah remarked that the BJP has betrayed Karnataka by slashing funds which were allocated by the Finance Commission.

Explaining his points, the leader of the opposition said, "During the UPA between 2010-11 to 2013-14, the 13th finance commission recommended Rs 45,713 crores to Karnataka. The actual devolution was Rs 47,036 crores. This is an increase by Rs 1,323 crore than what was promised."

Elaborating further he said that during BJP, between 2014-15 to 19-20, 13th &14th Finance Commission had recommended Rs 2,03,039 crores to Karnataka. "But the actual devolution was just Rs 1,65,963 crores. This is a decrease by Rs 48,768 crores which is 18.2% less than what was promised to Kannadigas."

Siddaramaiah pointed out that though Karnataka should have got Rs 48,768 Cr in 2019-20 as per the 14th Finance Commission, the state received only Rs 30,919 Crore which is a decrease by Rs 17,849 crores.

"Betrayal by BJP does not stop at this. Karnataka contributes more than Rs 2.2 lakh crores to the Central government in the form of various taxes. But Karnataka gets only Rs 28,581 crores on paper. If we consider 41% devolution as promised, Karnataka should have got at least 70-90,000 crore," he said.

The former chief minister questions the BJP over the attempts made by it to address the shortfall.

"Karnataka's share in devolution of funds is reduced by 4.72% in 14th Finance Commission to 3.64% in 15th Finance Commission. What were the attempts made by BJP to address this shortfall? Finance Minister Nirmala Sitaraman even rejected Rs 5,495 crores of special grants to Karnataka to address the shortfall.

Estimated share of Karnataka in 2020-21 is Rs 28,591 crores. But the actual devolution will not be more than Rs 16,000 cross if we see the current trend. Karnataka will lose about Rs 15,000 crores in GST compensation also. Will Amit Shah ensure justice to Karnataka?," Siddaramaiah questioned.

Stating that the state may lose about RS 50,000 crores compared to 2019 if all the transfers from the Centre was taken into consideration.

"This will increase fiscal deficit of Karnataka and also burden to bridge the deficit. B S Yediyurappa has already conceded to borrow money to fill the gap. This will increase the debt on Karnataka to about Rs 90,000 crores this year," he said.