Karnataka to waive interest on overdue loans of distt co-op banks: CM

The Karnataka government has decided to waive interest on medium and long-term overdue loans of District Cooperative Central and Primary Cooperative Agriculture and Rural Development banks, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Friday, claimed that it would benefit more than 57,000 farmers.Presenting the 2024-25 budget in the Assembly in Bangaluru, he said an Agriculture Development Authority will be created under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister to facilitate effective implementation of policies related to agriculture and allied activities. “Though I have presented a revenue deficit budget, "I have increased allocation for welfare programmes to Rs1,20,373 crore,” CM Siddaramaiah said. This year's budget size stands at Rs3,71,383 crore, he said. 
The Karnataka Budget announcement began at 10:15am in the morning and ended at around 1:30pm. In his more than three hours long speech, Siddaramaiah announced major allocations to minority, women and child welfare, as well as Bengaluru development - both infrastructure and traffic control - and the five main poll guarantees of the Congress party, among others.The CM also announced that an additional 44 km of metro line will be added to the existing 74 km by March 2025. “Namma Metro Rail project which is the one among the best metro services in the country, is the lifeline of Bengaluru city’s transport system. Every day, more than eight lakh people use metro services,” He said.The budget proposed to implement schemes to the tune of Rs 5,000 crore under Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board to emphasise on infrastructure development during the year 2024-25.
Siddaramaiah attacked the Centre in his budget speech by saying, "While introducing Goods and Services Tax, Union Government had assured that there would be growth of 14% and states would be compensated in case of shortage in revenue growth. At a projected growth rate of 14%, it was estimated that the GST tax collection would be Rs. 4,92,296 crore from 2017 to 2023-24. However, only Rs 3,26,764 crore GST revenue was collected and against the GST shortfall of Rs. 1,65,532 crore, the Central Government had released Rs 1,06,258 crore as compensation to the state. Hence, a loss of Rs 59,274 crore was incurred by the state due to unscientific implementation of GST in the last 7 years."

(Dr Mysi Patil, State Correspondent)