With bills rising, Karnataka govt considers more mergers to cut costs

After having merged or abolished four departments, the government is considering more administrative surgeries to cut costs, a dire need for Karnataka, whose salary and other obligatory bills are rising.

At least four more expenditure rationalisation proposals are in the pipeline as recommended by a Cabinet sub-committee headed by Revenue Minister R Ashoka, according to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s office.

These include bringing the directorate of translations under the Kannada & Culture department, merging the tourism corporation (KSTDC) with the tourism department, amalgamating multiple planning authorities near Bengaluru into one and consolidating the department of printing, stationery and publications into the department of school education & literacy.

The government has already scrapped the department of public enterprises and the Janaspandana wing of the department of personnel & administrative reforms.

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The government has merged the gazetteer department with the archives department and the directorate of pensions, small savings and asset liability monitoring has been put under the treasuries department.

The need to do away with posts and administrative wings is imminent as Karnataka’s committed expenditure - salaries, pensions, subsidies and so on - have risen exorbitantly.

In the 2023-24 fiscal, committed expenditure is estimated at Rs 2.06 lakh crore, which is 91.3 per cent of the revenue receipts. It was 79 per cent in 2016-17.

Implementation of the 7th Pay Commission for government employees would result in a financial burden of Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 18,000 crore in the first year itself, according to the medium term fiscal plan (MTFP).

"A larger proportion of the state budget allocated towards committed expenditure will result in lesser fiscal space towards developmental and welfare expenditure," the MTFP has warned.

Kannada & Culture Minister V Sunil Kumar told DH that merging the translations directorate - it is currently under the Department of Parliamentary Affairs & Legislation - with his department would lead to some savings. “Its staff will be used for some other work,” he said.

The KSTDC was under the department of public enterprises, which stands abolished.

Merging multiple bodies in the Bengaluru metropolitan region - Anekal Planning Authority, Bengaluru-Mysuru Infrastructure Corridor Area Planning Authority, STRR Planning Authority among others - is under consideration, according to Bommai's office.

The Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission-2, under former chief secretary T M Vijay Bhaskar, has been making a case for cost-cutting.

It has asked the government to form cut waste task forces in all departments to reduce costs. “I don’t think this has been acted upon,” Bhaskar told DH.