CM Siddaramaiah blaming BJP to hide failure due to freebies, says Bommai

Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai has charged that the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government is ‘misrepresenting’ facts about the state’s finances. 

In an interview to DH, Bommai said the new budget is not growth-oriented as capital expenditure is reduced.

“Their guarantees require Rs 52,000 crore every year, which will be recurring expenditure. It’ll cause a permanent damage to the state’s economy,” Bommai said. 

Bommai’s grouse is that Siddaramaiah “politicised” the entire budget speech. “I never expected Siddaramaiah to be so vindictive. He dedicated 50 paras in his speech to spew venom and misrepresent facts,” he said. 

The former CM questioned Siddaramaiah’s claim that funding for centrally-sponsored schemes (CSS) had reduced.

“CSS funds come in two ways - one, to the consolidated fund that’s accounted for and second, directly to the single nodal agency (SNA) that’s not accounted for. In 2022-23, Rs 4,966 crore came to SNA. So, the grant-in-aid component will be nearly Rs 18,000 crore.”

“But the CM is not saying this,” Bommai said, adding that last year Karnataka was “rewarded” with Rs 3,399 crore as special assistance for capital investment. 

On devolution, Bommai blamed Siddaramaiah for Karnataka’s share in the divisible tax pool reducing to 3.6 per cent under 15th Finance Commission from 4.7 per cent under the 14th Finance Commission. “Siddaramaiah was the CM when proposals were made. Because he didn’t represent the state’s finances properly, our share got reduced. He’s blaming us for his failure,” Bommai said, adding that he, too, raised issues concerning devolution at various forums “but we never politicised it.”

Bommai claimed that finances were quickly brought on track after managing the Covid-19 pandemic well. “There was a deficit budget. Everyone said it’d take 5-6 years for a surplus. But I gave a surplus budget within 1.5 years,” he said. 

“Now, Siddaramaiah has pushed the state back into deficit. It’ll take 2-3 years for a surplus. That’s why this is a reverse gear budget. The CM is trying to blame us so that his failures due to freebies are covered up,” he said.

Refuting Siddaramaiah’s charge of ‘fiscal indiscipline’ under the BJP government, Bommai said all governments have sanctioned projects without budgetary provisions.

“Right from the 1960s, irrigation projects were sanctioned beyond the budget because they took many years for implementation,” he said. “In 2018, Siddaramaiah sanctioned Rs 7,000 crore in just one meeting. Did he provide money in the budget? Is that discipline?” he said.