Higher tax receipts keep state's financial position sound

Karnataka government’s financial position has remained healthy during the first nine months of the present fiscal (April-December) following higher collections of revenue receipts and commercial taxes, governor H R Bhardwaj said here today.

In his address to the joint session of the state legislature here today, disrupted by the Opposition over land scam allegations, Bhardwaj informed the members that revenue receipts increased 20 per cent to Rs 38,688 crore compared to the same period last year.

“Commercial tax collection was higher by 30 per cent the highest among the neighbouring states,” Bhardwaj said without giving further details. Commercial taxes account for 62 per cent of the state’s total receipts.

The state’s plan expenditure also increased 16 per cent to Rs 14,505 crore while the non-plan expenditure was restricted to 10 per cent from April to December.

“With the present trend of the resource mobilisation and restricted non-plan expenditure, my government expects to achieve the annual plan of Rs 31,050 crore this fiscal,” Bhardwaj said in his address which was tabled in the house, after the governor cut short his scheduled speech.

Noting that the per capita plan expenditure in the state at Rs 4,500 during last fiscal was one of the highest in the country, the governor said it was expected to go up toRs 5,175 per head by the end of this fiscal.

“New beneficiary oriented schemes and enhancing the scope of existing schemes are providing direct benefit to 10.84 million people,” the governor said.

The focus on new initiatives resulted in increasing share of the plan expenditure from 29 per cent of the total expenditure during 1999-2004 to 40 per cent during 2008-2011, he said.

Referring to the success of the global investors’ meet held in this tech hub in early June 2010, Bhardwaj said the state government signed 389 agreements with Indian and overseas firms with a job potential for about 800,000 people.

“Till December, the government has implemented 180 projects with a combined investment of Rs 2.78 lakh crore across the state. Karnataka has also been considered as the most favoured destination for investment,” the governor said, citing a recent investment assessment report of the industry representative body Assocham.

In this context, the governor declared that the state government would organise a global agriculture investment meet in June in Bangalore, the first in the country, where an agri-business policy would be announced to facilitate better backward and forward linkages for farmers.