Bommai promises reforms as Assembly clears extra expenses

Karnataka Chief Minister Basvaraj Bommai, who is also the finance minister, assured the Assembly that he will see through some major fiscal reforms that he has initiated.

He was speaking before the Assembly passed supplementary estimates aggregating an unprecedented sum of Rs 26,953 crore.

Supplementary estimates are additional expenditures incurred by the government over and above the budget provisions.

"There are many loopholes that have crept in. The number of heads of account are more than necessary. There are spillovers and many residual, useless schemes. We have started expenditure rationalisation. I'm focussing on the expenditure side of things," Bommai said.

He said he has asked the Karnataka Administrative Reforms Commission-2 to suggest ways in which the movement of files can be streamlined.

"A file moves from a village accountant to the deputy tahsildar, tahsildar, assistant commissioner, deputy commissioner, case-worker in the secretariat, superintendent, under secretary, deputy secretary, joint secretary, assistant secretary and then principal secretary. I have set the mandate that no file should have 4-5 levels of movement," Bommai explained.

"When a recommendation is made by the deputy commissioner, who is equal to the rank of a joint secretary, the file shouldn't go to an under secretary. Also, with electronic filing, why do we need physical files? By fixing this, we can save money, time, improve efficiency and reduce corruption," he said.

The supplementary estimates of Rs 26,953 crore include additional expenses incurred by the Energy Department (Rs 5,100 crore), Revenue Department (Rs 4,036.67 crore), Urban Development (Rs 2,986.96 crore), Food & Civil Supplies (Rs 2,699.12 crore), Water Resources (Rs 1,800.18 crore) among others.

Bommai pointed out that in 2020-21, the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in a revenue shortfall of Rs 21,835 crore. "We also had to spend Rs 15,000 crore to handle the pandemic. In all, we faced a burden of Rs 40,000 crore," he said.

The supplementary estimates are 10 per cent of the budget and "it's the biggest", Bommai said. "We've already received this money. For example, we have achieved a record collection in commercial taxes," he said.

For the 2021-22 fiscal, the government had estimated Rs 1.61 lakh crore in revenue receipts. The anticipated receipts by the end of March will be Rs 1.89 lakh crore, which is an additional Rs 27,774 crore.

"We've already hit the road to recovery. Next year, we will recover even more," Bommai said.