Alleging that Karnataka is heading towards “financial bankruptcy” due to mismanagement, the opposition BJP on Wednesday (February 19, 2025) urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to come out with a white paper on the financial condition of the State before presenting the state budget.
“It is the duty of the Chief Minister, who is set to present the State Budget for the record 16th time on March 7, to inform people of the real position of finances before presenting the Budget,” BJP State President B. Y. Vijayendra told the media in Bengaluru.
Deterioration in financial condition
The BJP leader termed the Chief Minister’s claims that Karnataka’s financial condition is good as “far from true”. “In fact, the financial condition is deteriorating day by day,” he remarked. “This is evident in the fact that the government is struggling to pay the salaries of its staff and the guarantee schemes have stopped reaching the beneficiaries in the last four to six months. Also, the service charges for various facilities have seen a sharp increase,” he alleged.
He further stated that the loan burden of Karnataka had increased by ₹1.90 lakh crore in the last two years of Congress administration.
Increased charged of services
“The Chief Minister is under an illusion that people of the State are happy with the guarantee schemes. But in reality, people are paying the price for guarantees as the government has increased the charges of various services to raise resources for guarantees. For example, the property registration charges have gone up by 600%, the property guidance value has been increased by 30% while vehicle registration fee has gone up by 10% and services charges in government hospitals have been increased by 5%,” he alleged.
He pointed out that the government was considering yet another hike in selling prices of milk and power tariff.
Inadequate funds
Similarly, various departments of the government did not even have adequate funds to pay their power bills, he alleged, while pointing out that the Energy Department was yet to get dues to the tune of ₹6,000 crore from various departments towards power bills.
Taking exception to the Karnataka government’s charges that the Centre is responsible for the Bengaluru Metro fare hike, he wondered why the metro fares have not been increased in other cities then. He claimed that the “pressure from the State government” had resulted in metro fare hike.
