BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has presented the budget 16 times and calls himself an expert, but in the past three years, the state has taken a loan of Rs 3.07 lakh crore, Leader of Opposition in the Council Chalavadi Narayanaswamy said on Tuesday.
As a result of this loan, even a newborn child in the state has a debt burden of Rs 1 lakh on its head. The budgets presented by Siddaramaiah have pushed the state towards bankruptcy, he said.
Discussing the recently presented state budget by Siddaramaiah, Narayanaswamy said, “The development in the state is zero. The government has a total debt of approximately Rs 7 lakh crore so far.”
Citing the statistics, he said, “In 2023-24, the revenue estimate was Rs 1,75,000 crore while the actual collection was Rs 1,61,000, leading to a deficit of Rs 14,000 crore (8% less). In 2024-25, the revenue estimate was Rs 1,89,893 crore while the actual collection was Rs 1,80,368 crore, leading to a deficit of Rs 9,525 crore (5.1% less). Despite the state’s revenue lagging behind its actual collection, in 2025-26, the CM presented a budget with a revenue estimation is Rs 2.08 lakh crore and that there will be additional revenue of 15 per cent. A debt of Rs 1,16,000 crore is shown in the budget.”
He said Siddaramaiah has cleverly kept the state in debt but always blames the Union government that it takes away all the taxes from Karnataka and the money doesn’t come back.
“The promised amount from the Union government in 2023-24 was Rs 37,000 crore, but the state received Rs 40,000 crore. In 2024-25, the promised amount was Rs 44,485 crore and the amount received was Rs 46,932 crore.
In 2025-26, the promised amount is Rs 51,876 crore and the expected amount is Rs 55,000 crore,” Narayanaswamy said, adding that the Union government has always given more than what was promised to Karnataka and that the Congress government with ‘zero’ development was shielding itself from the funds received while continuing with the blame game.
He also registered his opposition to the alleged diversion of funds reserved for the Scheduled Castes Sub Plan (SCCP) and Tribal Sub Plan (TSP) for the guarantees and dubbed the action as taking money from the pocket of people and giving it back to them.
He also slammed the guarantee schemes, stating that they give only temporary relief, and called upon the government to “teach people fishing instead of providing them with fish every day”.