BENGALURU: Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will present the first budget of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government on July 5 with the much-touted farm loan waiver as the flagship programme.
The Budget session of the legislature will start on July 2 with Governor Vajubhai Vala’s address to the joint session and is scheduled to end on July 12. The state Cabinet, which met here on Friday evening, approved the schedule for the Budget session, Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs Krishna Byre Gowda told reporters after the meeting.
Though the farm loan waiver did not figure prominently in the cabinet meeting, which lasted for just 45 minutes, the Chief Minister has been busy for the past two weeks meeting officials of the Finance, Agriculture and Cooperation departments as part of the preparations to fulfil his promise to waive farm loans availed from both cooperative institutions and commercial banks. The CM has been assured of full support from AICC chief Rahul Gandhi in implementing the farm loan waiver.
The daunting challenge of mobilising about Rs 53,000 crore to deliver on total farm loan waiver has forced Kumaraswamy to formulate conditions and modalities for the programme to lessen the financial burden.
Budget expected to offer only partial waiver
According to sources close to the Chief Minister, the first budget is expected to offer only partial waiver of farm loans with a cap of Rs 2 lakh and is likely to be limited to loans availed from cooperative banks. Waiver of farm loans availed from cooperative banks alone is estimated to cost Rs 11,900 crore and benefit about 22 lakh farmers.
A proposal to waive just the interest on loans availed from nationalised banks in the first budget and waive the principal in subsequent budgets is also under consideration, sources said.The CM has been assured of full support from Congress chief Rahul Gandhi in implementing farm loan waiver.The budget is also set continue most of the welfare programmes announced by the previous Siddaramaiah government.
However, allocation for some of the programmes and projects is likely to be cut to mobilise resources for the farm loan waiver. The Cabinet also gave its nod for the appointment of senior JD(S) MLC Basavaraj Horatti as pro-tem Chairman of the Legislative Council to conduct the election of a new Chairman as the term of incumbent chairman D H Shankaramurthy has ended.