Bangalore, Feb 28, 2013:
The Union Budget 2013-14 presented today in Parliament by Finance Minister P Chidambaram is a lacklustre one without any effective measures which can revive the sluggish economy of the country, Karnataka Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar said today. “It is anti-growth and anti-development budget”, Shettar said.
He said Indian economy is facing stagnation following global financial downturn. The growth of agriculture,
manufacture and service sectors has declined. Employment opportunities have reduced. “In this background, it was expected that Union Finance Minister would include necessary schemes and programmes to revive the national economy. But this expectation has not been fulfilled”, Shettar said.
The Central Government has suggested to the states to limit the fiscal deficit to three per cent of the GSDP. But
the fact that, the fiscal deficit of the Centre is 5.2 per cent of the GDP is indicative that no effective steps are
taken at national level to control fiscal deficit, he said.
“Due attention has not been given to improve the basic infrastructure. We had requested Central support to improve
the infrastructure of Bangalore which has global reputation. But, no such support is given in the Budget”, the Chief
Minister said.
During the current financial year, State share in Central taxes is indicated to come down by 3.4 per cent. As a result,
Karnataka will get Rs 400 crore less than the budget estimates in financial year 2012-13.
“Further, Central Assistance for State plan is expected to come down by Rs 18,000 crore, which is 14 per cent of Budget Estimates. As a result, Karnataka will get Rs 1,000 crore less than the budget estimates in FY 2012-13”, he said.
Shettar said when the economy is not doing too well, the Union Budget is curtailing development expenditure rather than providing stimulus to the economy.
It was expected that the Budget would contain strategies to contain black money and to bring back money illegally
deposited in foreign banks. But the budget has failed to initiate any such measures.
The Chief Minister said no new funds have been released for the last three years under PMGSY scheme to the States like Karnataka which have successfully implemented this scheme. “We had demanded the centre to release fresh funds in this regard. Though PMGSY – 2 has been announced, the guidelines are missing”, he said. “On the whole, this is a budget aimed at maintaining the status quo. It does not contain any programme that can trigger faster economic growth. Therefore, I consider this budget to be a lackluster one”.
