Credit and Finance for MSMEs: The Chief Minister of Karnataka Basavaraj Bommai said that the Union Budget’s announcement on investment in the capital sector will enable India become a $5 trillion economy, reported ANI on Thursday.
“Its a growth-oriented budget and also the social care and infrastructure has been taken care of. Especially because of the Rs 10 lakh crore investment in the capital sector, there will be employment, employment generation and growth of a USD 5 trillion economy can be achieved through this budget,” Bommai said.
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The rural infrastructure has been allotted substantial funds for drinking water, housing, rural infrastructure and also urban infrastructure in the Union Budget 2023, he added.
The Minister highlighted, “The agriculture has been given a lot of impetus [in the budget]. More capitalists are going into agriculture for the first time and the scale of finance has also increased. Also, the MSMEs have been taken care of for the first time and individual tax-level benefit has been given. Therefore, it is overall a growth-oriented budget with a macro and micro level balanced management. It is one of the finest budgets of the Government of India.”
With the investment of Rs 10 lakh crore in the capital sector, Bommai said that it would take the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth beyond seven per cent.
“Besides Upper Bhadra project, we are getting funds in rural development, agriculture, national highways and railways, hence there is a huge benefit for Karnataka in this budget,” he added. Importantly, the Finance Minister in her budget speech on Wednesday announced a grant of Rs 5,300 crore for the Upper Bhadra Project in Karnataka.
The project is related to a major lift irrigation scheme under implementation in the central region of Karnataka which is expected to lift upto 17.40 thousand million cubic feet (TMC) of water in the first stage from Tunga to Bhadra and 29.90 TMC of water in the second stage from Bhadra to a tunnel near Ajjampura in Tungabhadra, as per the website of Visvesvaraya Jala Nigam.
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Meanwhile, Karantaka Congress Chief DK Shivakumar felt otherwise and said, “Karnataka has got nothing in the Union Budget, except that they have released some amount for Tungabhadra, which has already been there.” He told mediapersons, “The budget does not impact Karnataka straight and we are very sorry that we thought Nirmala Sitharaman is from our state and she will give a boost to the state but nothing has been done.”
