Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday sought to downplay the increase in the income tax exemption limit to Rs 12 lakh by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech and said it would only help the upper middle class which is a small segment of our population.
Reacting to the budget for 2025-26, Siddaramaiah, who is also the state finance minister, said the decision to increase the exemption limit is being appreciated by some people. "But it will help only a few families of the upper middle class," Siddaramaiah said.
"In India, only 8.09 crore people pay income tax and they account for just 6.64 per cent of our population. Of these, 4.9 crore people pay zero tax. Such being the case, only a handful of families belonging to the upper middle class stand to benefit. What about those who are earning Rs 100- 150 a day? The budget has no schemes for these people," he asked.
On the other hand, the budget seems to be extending a helping hand to the corporate houses, he said. "For example, the Finance Minister has provided a whopping Rs 28,000 crore as against Rs 2,000 crore in 2023-24 in compensation to companies providing telecom infrastructure," he said.
He also expressed anguish over what he called 'complete neglect of Southern States by the Centre'. "Barring Andhra Pradesh, which got some benefits, all other southern states have been neglected in the budget. Despite being the second largest contributor to the Centre's tax kitty, Karnataka has not even a single scheme. Forget Karnataka, even other states barring Bihar and Andhra Pradesh have got nothing which is against the country’s federal system," he added.
Among others Karnataka had requested for release of Rs 5495 crore as recommended by the 15th Finance Commission, National Project tag for the Upper Bhadra Project, clearance for Kalasa-Banduri and Mekedatu drinking water projects, Rs 10,000 crore for protection of Western Ghats. But none of these demands found a mention in the budget, the Chief Minister said.
