The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Cut in funds for key areas will hit growth: Siddaramaiah In the legislature

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Cut in funds for key areas will hit growth: Siddaramaiah In the legislature

Special Correspondent

‘Budget has not announced measures to stimulate growth’

BANGALORE: Former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the State budget presented by Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa has reduced social service and economic service allocations by seven per cent and 17 per cent, respectively.

Speaking on the budget in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, Mr. Siddaramaiah, a former Finance Minister, said reduction in development expenditures would retard the growth rate of the State in the coming years.

The budget had not come out with measures to stimulate growth during economic slowdown.

Sectors such as rural development, irrigation, health, energy etc. came under economic services, and expenditure on these core sectors had been reduced. Decline in revenue receipts to the tune of Rs. 4,200 crore in 2008-09 had adversely affected the expenditure on core sectors, he said. Though the plan size had grown from Rs. 17,782 crore in 2007-08 to Rs. 25,952 crore in 2008-09, the Government had not been able to spend the money.

The proposed plan size was Rs. 29,500 crore in 2009-10. He quoted the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report ending March 2008 and said the Government had not released Rs. 8,942 crore to various departments in 2007-08. Over Rs. 100 crore had not been released to 15 major departments.

In the current year (2008-09) too, the Government may not be able to release funds to the tune of Rs. 10,000 crore, he said.

Though the Government had received only Rs. 138 crore from the sale of government lands against the target of Rs. 3,000 crore in 2008-09, it had proposed to mobilise Rs. 1,900 crore through the sale of lands in 2009-10, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.

Stating that the budget was not “growth-oriented,” the former Deputy Chief Minister said the Chief Minister had granted Rs. 130 crore to various maths.

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