The Economic Survey 2022-23, presented by the finance minister, brings good hope with 6.5% growth in GDP and controlled inflation for the Indian economy. There is no doubt that certain states have contributed significantly towards the impressive growth of the economy, and Karnataka is one of the forerunners in these efforts.
However, the state does not receive due attention for its efforts in contributing to the growth of the Indian economy. Karnataka’s collection of GST in December 2022 itself was Rs 10,061 crore, but till May 2022, pending dues paid by the Government of India was only Rs 8,633 crore. The Finance Commission’s recommendations were also not very favourable to the State.
Therefore, the current financial condition of the state, with significant outstanding liabilities, is mainly due to the non-availability of its own legitimate funds. Therefore, it is expected that from the 2022-23 budget, the Finance ministry expeditiously clears Karnataka’s GST dues, which will help enhance development efforts in the state.
Second, the Government of India usually clears its contribution to centrally-sponsored and Central sector schemes without much delay. However, this time these dues are pending with the Union government, and that staggers the speed of the schemes, causing a slowdown in development efforts.
There are quite a few infrastructure and urban development projects taken up with support from the Government of India under various programmes. These and other pipeline projects are held up due to a shortage of funds to be released by the Government of India.
In fact, in this budget, we can genuinely expect the clearance of all dues, besides a few new programmes to boost the development efforts of the state, and its contribution to the country’s development.
Karnataka is one of the major drought-prone states, and therefore, irrigation schemes need to be prioritised, and it will be perfectly in tune to expect higher allocation in the irrigation sector to complete pending works. The Government of India is committed to backward area development and has made commendable efforts in a few other states for this. Strangely, Karnataka does not find a place on this list. The special scheme of Kalyana Karnataka for backward area development would require significant support in the coming budget.
Infrastructure development is one of the important components in Karnataka’s development efforts, which cannot be accomplished with state resources alone, and hence the state can expect additional allocation in infrastructural development for Karnataka, especially completing the Bharat Mala Road Project, for which Rs 1,44,922 crore was sanctioned, but only Rs 8,500 crore has been approved up to now.
It is strange that Karnataka does not have any facility equivalent to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the state sector. It is well known that Karnataka is one of the preferred destinations for medical treatment and most of it happens only in private hospitals located in the state.
These are accessible to only one class of citizens, and hence we can expect a state-of-art medical sciences institution to be located in Karnataka, with the initiative from the Government of India in the coming budget. These expectations are not really high but formed keeping in view Karnataka’s contribution to the aggregate growth of the country.
Prof R S Deshpande
Visiting Professor at Institute for Social and Economic Change and Indian Council of Social Science Research National Fellow