Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday, July 29 urged Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi to drop Nirmala Sitharaman from the ministry accusing the Union Minister of Finance of not knowing the basics of budget. He claimed that allotting her the Finance Ministry is ‘dangerous’ for the country's progress.
"The Finance Minister (FM) has made a desperate attempt to hide the injustice being done to Karnataka by the Narendra Modi government in a press conference held in Bengaluru on Sunday, July 28. It is a tragedy to be caught in the net of one's own making. If you look at the confusing statements of the FM, it will be proved that the central government has given Karnataka only a cup',' the CM said.
The previous Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government (2004-2014) provided grants to Karnataka worth Rs 60,779 crore in ten years, he said. "Mrs Sitharaman said that the amount given by the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government (2014-2024) was Rs 2,36,955 crore. However, she forgot how much the budget size of the central government has increased in over ten years. Is it their ignorance, or their desire to mislead people?" he questioned.
By comparing the budgets represented by the UPA and NDA, Siddaramaiah said that the central government budget for 2013-14 was Rs 16.06 lakh crore.
"At that time, a total of Rs 31,483 crore was given to Karnataka in the form of grants of Rs 16,428 crore alongside tax allocation of Rs 15,005 crore. This assistance was 1.9 per cent of the total budget. The budget size of the central government for the period 2024-25 is Rs 48.02 lakh crore. So, we will get Rs 15,229 crore in central grant and Rs 44,485 crore in tax allocation,'' the CM stated.
Further explaining his claim, he said that this amounts to 1.2 per cent of the total budget size. "Had the Union budget considered giving 1.9 per cent share of the Union budget of 2013-14, then Karnataka should have got Rs 91,580 crore both from tax share and grants,'' the CM complained.
In addition to this, he said the 15th Finance Commission recommended Rs 5,495 as grants but the FM rejected the recommendation, hence proving her disregard for the state. The CM highlighted that the rejection of the 15th Finance Commission recommendation to give Rs 3,000 crore for the Bengaluru Peripheral Ring Road and another Rs 3,000 crore for the development of lakes and water bodies has deprived Karnataka of about Rs 11, 495 crore.
CM Siddaramaiah alleged that Karnataka lost Rs 1,87,867 crore from 2017-18 under the BJP-led Government at the Centre.
''PM Narendra Modi and FM Nirmala Sitharaman have joined forces to unfairly allocate taxes and grants to every state where opposition governments have been in place for the past ten years. Tragically, the FM has cheated the winning house (Karnataka). How can she be so unfair towards Karnataka, the state that got her to the Rajya Sabha? What moral ground does she have in talking about the state's financial system?'' the CM questioned.
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