Mysuru, Jan 23 Karnataka chief minister, B. S. Yediyurappa on Saturday hinted that Athe state budget for 2021-22 will be downsized given the financial condition as a fallout of the Covid -19 pandemic.
With more than Rs 30,000 crore revenue shortage, Karnataka is staring at downsizing its outlay by at least 10 per cent this fiscal 2021-22, a senior official of the Finance department told .
Yediyurappa arrived in Mysuru in a special flight to take part in a inauguration of a statue of Akka Mahadevi, regarded as one of the first female mystic-poets of the Kannada literature (Vachana Sahitya) of the 12th century and one of the prominent person in the Lingayat community, to which the CM belongs.
Speaking to reporters at the Mandakalli airport on the outskirts of Mysuru, the CM conceded that the financial situation of the state was not at its best due to pandemic and prolonged lockdowns, the state has not mopped up resources to an extent it should have.
"Serious difficulties are being faced in resource mobilisation efforts. This magnitude of economic difficulties was never faced in the previous years by our state. Therefore, downsizing of the budget is inevitable and the outlay is bound to be less than what it was last year," the CM who also holds the finance portfolio said.
Yediyurappa had tabled a budget with an out of Rs 2,37,893 crore 2020-21 fiscal year, which was barely less than two per cent increase in outlay compared to 2019-20 fiscal.
However, Yediyurappa quickly added that there will be no dearth of funds or resources to fight the Covid-19 pandemic while expressing hope that the requirement could be less in the new financial year.
"This is because Covid-19 was almost 90 per cent under control and hence the resources required too could be less than what was allocated last year."
The Chief Minister had said recently that he would present the budget in March and the joint legislature session of the state is slated to commence from January 28 till February 5.
While addressing his customary press conference on the eve of New Year on December 31, 2020, Yediyurappa had admitted that the state was expected to face a revenue shortage of Rs 30,000 crore in 2020-21.
"Karnataka is likely to face a financial setback in the coming fiscal (2021-22) year too, as a ripple effect from the current year's crisis owing to the pandemic," he had said.
( With inputs from IANS )
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