K'taka revenue up 20%

Karnataka's revenue during the first half (from April to September) of the financial year touched Rs 6,883.11 crore, registering an increase of 20.46 per cent, compared with Rs 5,713.73 crore recorded during the corresponding period last year.

The state's principal revenue streams include commercial tax, excise, stamps and registration fee and motor vehicles tax. Karnataka deputy chief minister B S Yediyurappa, who is also the finance minister, told reporters here on Thursday that the enhanced revenue generation indicated the financial health of the state.

"We have been achieving a constant growth in revenue because of the reforms in excise licence auctioning. Besides, registration of land too has gone up with a substantial contribution to the revenues," he added.

The collection from commercial taxes stood at Rs 4,254.38 crore as against last year's Rs 3,857.09 crore (an increase of 10.30 per cent).

Similarly, the revenue collection from excise touched Rs 1,196.27 crore as against Rs 770.25 crore recorded in the first half of the previous financial year. "The increase in revenues from excise is a whopping 55.30 per cent (Rs 426.02 crore)," Yediyurappa said.

Also, the collection under stamps and registration fee was Rs 1,078.91 crore compared with last year's Rs 733.65 crore (an increase of 47 per cent). This gives a measure of the real estate boom. However, collection under motor vehicle taxes was stagnant.

Yediyurappa said the additional revenue generated will be used for welfare programmes.

"The government distributed bicycles to high school-going girls, hailing from below the poverty line (BPL) families, at a cost of Rs 35.46 crore. Now, the scheme will be extended to boys too. In two months, 2.19 lakh bicycles will be distributed to high school-going boys. The government has set aside Rs 44.46 crore for this purpose," he stated.

He pointed out that the government had released Rs 107 crore as seed subsidy as against Rs 25 crore last year.

"Also improvement of roads will be taken up at a cost of Rs 110 crore. An amount of Rs 20 crore has been released for Gadag-Bagalkot railway gauge conversion work," he said.