For Rs 34,000 crore bailout, H D Kumaraswamy squeezes all

BENGALURU: Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy all but executed his party’s poll-eve promise, announcing a whopping largesse of Rs 34,000 crores for farmers in distress, but his maiden budget could well invite the wrath of the middle class and lower middle class as he proposed a hike in prices of fuel, electricity, liquor and a substantial increase in motor vehicle tax, and earmarked unimpressive sums for makeover of Bengaluru city, on Thursday.   

With a waiver of loans of this magnitude, Mr Kumaraswamy is on par with his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath who wrote off farm loans to the tune of Rs 36,000 crores and a close second to the UPA government’s largesse of Rs 72,000 crores. In the process, Mr Kumaraswamy adopted the ‘Rob Peter To Pay Paul’ strategy, proposing to hike taxes on a slew of items and goods predominantly used by the lower and middle classes. 

The upshot: new vehicles will be expensive in view of a staggering 50 per cent increase in motor vehicle tax and higher taxes on fuel and electricity. The Chief Mini ster also implemented another pre-poll promise of JD (S), with an announcement of a monthly allowance of '6,000 for pregnant women belonging to BPL families but capped this scheme for families with two children.      

Mr Kumaraswamy also made an effort to project the state as a manufacturing hub under a mission christened ‘Compete with China’ with an intention to promote industries in seven districts: Production of solar panels, production of inverters and capacitors in Kalaburgi, LED manufacturing hub in Chitradurga, floor and sanitary tiles production units in Hassan, cluster of toys manufacturing units in Koppal, ICB manufacturing units in Mysuru, promotion of textile industries in Ballari, cluster of mobile phone industries in Chikkaballapur, production of sports goods in Tumakuru. He, however, emulated another former CM B.S. Yeddyurappa with his benevolence to various small and microscopic communities besides allocating Rs 25 crore for uplift of Brahmins.                       

In a bid to bring all transport modes under a single roof, Chief Minister, H. D. Kumaraswmy on Thursday announced an Integrated Road Transport Authority under his chairmanship for the comprehensive reform of Bengaluru’s transportation services.  Presenting his maiden budget here, Mr Kumaraswamy said, “This authority will formulate a working and action plan by co-ordinating with BMRCL, BMTC, BDA, BBMP and other agencies relating to land transport for establishing a hassle-free easy transport system at affordable rates.” 
Electric buses

While in a bid to promote green vehicle initiative, the CM asserted that as many as 80 electric buses will be operated through the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation. “Use electric buses under the Karnataka Government Electric Vehicle Policy – 2017, 80 electric buses will be operated through Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation. All transport corporations intend to purchase 4236 new buses for public use,” he declared.

He further proposed that the state government establish 100 charging units at a cost of Rs 4 crore to encourage usage of electric vehicles in order to control increasing air pollution in Bengaluru city. The CM added that the Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation cannot run just by collecting transportation charges, therefore, his government has decided to provide direct subsidy of '100 crore to the BMTC.