Siddaramaiah at his candid best, calls tax collections bogus

In a candid remark, Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah on Thursday said all governments, including the one he headed, did little to increase efficiency in tax collections, calling them “bogus.”

Siddaramaiah, who holds the record of presenting 13 state budgets, said this during a discussion on the supplementary estimates in the Assembly. The government’s supplementary estimates aggregate Rs 4,008 crore additional expenses incurred over and above the budget provisions.

“The supplementary estimates are in addition to the Rs 2.37 lakh crore budget,” Siddaramaiah pointed out.

“The government commonly says it will increase tax efficiency. It’s all bogus. Nothing will happen. It was like that even when I was there (as CM). Why lie to ourselves? We just say what officials write for us,” he said.

Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri jokingly remarked that it was uncharacteristic of Siddaramaiah to say this.

“Tax collections won’t increase. In fact, they won’t even meet the collection targets. Ultimately, we end up cutting expenditure,” Siddaramaiah said.

Siddaramaiah was referring to resource mobilisation through its own tax revenues. For 2020-21 fiscal, the BJP government has estimated that its own tax revenues will be Rs 1.28 lakh crore.