The Karnataka government on Friday presented a revenue-surplus Budget for 2023-24 and promised to keep fiscal deficit below 3% of GSDP for the second year in a row.
It has projected fiscal deficit to be at 2.6% of GSDP in FY24, compared with 2.8% in the FY23 revised estimate (RE) and 3.84% in FY22.
Ahead of the assembly elections in April-May, chief minister Basavaraj Bommai announced an increase in the limit of interest-free short-term loans given to farmers from Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh for the next financial year. He also announced an additional subsidy of Rs 10,000 each next year under a new scheme, ‘Bhoo Siri’, for Kisan Credit Card holders.
“Increase in state’s own revenue collection and in state’s share of Central government’s taxes has helped to reduce the state’s fiscal deficit to the extent of Rs 8,703 crore in the revised estimates for 2022-2023. In order to achieve fiscal stability, borrowings will be restricted to a lower amount than the budget estimates,” Bommai said presenting the budget.
For the first time post the Covid pandemic, revenue receipts are estimated to be more than the revenue expenditure by Rs 402 crore. Accordingly, the budget has estimated a revenue surplus of 0.02% of GSDP compared with a revenue deficit of 0.27% in FY23RE (revised from 0.67% in BE) and 0.79% in FY22.
To further boost capital expenditure, the budget has enhanced outlay by 30.4% for capex to Rs 61,234 crore in FY24.
Revenue receipts are estimated to be Rs 2.26 trillion in FY24, up 6.4% on year while total expenditure is projected to rise 5% on year to Rs 2.87 trillion. Revenue expenditure is estimated to rise modestly by 3.3% to Rs 2.26 trillion.
The total liabilities of the state at the end of 2023-24 are estimated to be 24.2% of GSDP compared with 23.52% in FY23 and 26.71% in FY22.
“The state government collected Rs 17,000 crore from stamp duty & registration fees in 2022, which is 13% higher than the targetted revenue of Rs 15,000 crore. This indicates the strong demand for real estate assets in the state,” Shantanu Mazumder, executive director – Bengaluru, Knight Frank India, said.
Allocation of Rs 10,000 crore for the development of Bengaluru city is going to boost overall real estate growth and address major issues related to traffic decongestion and civic infrastructure which the city has been facing, Mazumder added.