Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Thursday told the Assembly that Karnataka has to get Rs 14,015 crore as GST compensation, and an additional Rs 6,000 crore on which the state has “laid a claim”. 

Bommai, the finance minister, was speaking on the supplementary estimates aggregating Rs 14,762.20 crore that were passed in the Assembly.

“Since 2018-19, the state has received Rs 93,411 crore and we are yet to get Rs 14,015 crore,” Bommai said on GST compensation. “The pendency apart, we have laid a claim on Rs 6,000 crore that we’ve audited. The union finance minister has assured that the she would release it as soon as the Comptroller and Auditor General approves,” he said. 

In the current 2022-23 fiscal, the state government had estimated only Rs 5,000 crore as GST compensation, which ended in June. Bommai said the state has received Rs 8,633 crore already this fiscal owing to high GST collections. “That’s Rs 3,633 crore extra on what we had estimated,” he pointed out. “We expect to receive another Rs 4,000-5,000 crore in the next 5-6 months.”

The supplementary estimates tabled by Bommai show that the state government incurred Rs 14,762.20 crore additional expenditures incurred over and above the budget provisions. This includes Rs 1,200 crore to road transport corporations, Rs 857 crore to various community-specific corporations and Rs 810 crore for the Raitha Vidya Nidhi scholarship. 

“The supplementary estimates of Rs 14,762.20 crore is 5.43% of the budget size,” Bommai said. “Of this, Rs 525 will come from the Centre, Rs 2,038 crore from reserve funds and Rs 1,728 crore from adjustment. So, the cash outgo will be around Rs 10,000 crore,” he said.

Bommai expressed confidence that the state government would meet revenue targets this year. 

Congress MLA Krishna Byre Gowda urged Bommai to focus on augmenting revenue sources. He cited a CAG report on how the government can earn Rs 2,500 crore on royalty from minor minerals from the Chikballapur district alone. 

Bommai admitted flaws in the collection of mining royalties. “There’s not a lot of clarity. There’s traditional rock cutting, there’s machinery and there are environmental issues. There’s one group that is misusing machinery. We must regulate this,” he said, adding that the government will rely on drone technology and satellite imagery to streamline mining. 

Source: Deccan Herald
https://www.deccanherald.com/state/top-karnataka-stories/gst-compensation-ktaka-yet-to-get-rs-14k-crore-says-cm-1147387.html