K'taka budget in Parliament today

Karnataka's budget for 2008-09 will be presented by Union finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram in the Parliament on Monday.

It will be a vote-on-account budget and will be a concise one unlike the budgets that are presented by popular governments, state finance secretary M R Sreenivasamurthy told reporters here while pointing out to the President's rule in the state.

Being presented in the run-up to the assembly elections in the state, the budget is likely to be become the poll plank for political parties, which are facing a dearth of issues to fight at the hustings.

The Congress, which has presented several representations to the Centre for inclusion in the budget, hopes to ride on Chidambaram's promises.

However, the BJP and JD(S) have already made it clear that they do not have any high expectations from the budget.

"Only 43 per cent of the 2007-08 budget assurances have been delivered so far. The President's rule in the state has not only slowed the pace of several on-going projects, but has also ensured that some welfare programmes remain non-starters. So we don't expect anything great from the budget," former chief minister and JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy said.

However, the industry bodies like the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (Kassia) expect several concessions and waivers in the budget.

Merger of VAT 240 audit with Income Tax 46 audit, waiver of stamp duty on loan documents and tax exemption on recycled products are some of the requests made by Kassia.