Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 3: Chief minister, B S Yediyurappa, who is forced to make tight rope walk in view of sluggish economic situation, is almost sure to deprive Maths and other religious institutions of grants. He was so far known to be a liberal donor for these entities, but he is under compulsion to enforce financial discipline as he has to match commitment in the form of large number of schemes which have already been approved, by generating enough revenue to meet them.

Yediyurappa will be presenting his budget on Thursday. Economists expect him to cut subsidies to different sectors, and impose additional taxes for entertainment, petroleum products and excise sectors. During his informal chat and consultation he had with editors and officials, Yediyurappa dropped hints that the economic situation is tough if not grim. He is not expected to declare any new schemes but is learnt to have decided to continue with certain schemes introduced by the coalition government.

The budget size is expected to be about 7 percent bigger than the last one. As all the states and the central government are facing economic slump, the chief minister cannot hope to rely on the central government for grants. It is said that there is a shortage of Rs 13,000 crore in central government grants. Even though Yediyurappa is seeking at least 50 percent of this shortage in the form of special grant from the central government to recoup the shortage, chances of his plea getting approved are remote.

In order to maintain financial discipline, the chief minister is not expected to go for extravagant borrowing, and instead, try to generate revenue by enhancing taxes. At the same time, he plans to recover encroached government lands from unauthorized persons and entities, within a period of next six months and generate revenue of Rs 7,000 crore by selling these properties.

The chief minister has asserted that the budget will be development oriented. He is also expected to be farmer friendly. Therefore it would be interesting to see what he will do to conjure up a balanced budget that gives fillip to development and does not burden the people too much.