Bengaluru: Chief minister Siddaramaiah again accused the Centre of ignoring Karnataka’s demand to treat cess and surcharges collected from the state as part of the divisible pool, saying Sunday’s Union Budget did not address the issue despite the state flagging it to the 16th Finance Commission. In his reply to the discussion on the motion of thanks to the governor’s address Monday in the assembly, Siddaramaiah said the Centre collected a staggering Rs 6 lakh crore in cess and surcharges, but not one paisa was shared with states.
He said Karnataka’s loss from GST revenue since 2022 was around Rs 18,000-20,000 crore annually, totalling Rs 75,000-80,000 crore in four years. He also reiterated Karnataka was not given the Rs 11,495 crore recommended by the 14th Finance Commission. Siddaramaiah said Karnataka’s share in devolution fell from 4.7% under the 14th Finance Commission to 3.6% under the 15th, which, he claimed, resulted in a loss of Rs 1.2 lakh crore over five years. He said all state representatives should question the funding cut and added that if Karnataka paid Rs 4.5 lakh crore in taxes, it received only Rs 55,000-60,000 crore in return. “The central govt collected higher GST for eight years and then suddenly reduced it because of the Bihar election. Karnataka lost Rs 12,000 -15,000 crore in GST revenue, affecting seven crore Kannadigas,” he said. Siddaramaiah also trained his guns on governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot, alleging he left the House in haste without reading the full address prepared by the council of ministers. He said Gehlot did not mention “Jai Samvidhan” and left before the national anthem. “The governor is basically a good person,” Siddaramaiah said. “We are not against him, we are against the central govt. Article 176 mandates the governor read the speech. But he did not read it. If he had read the full speech, people of Karnataka would have learnt of the injustice the Centre has meted out to the state.” He added that the speech was only about “injustice from the Centre” and insisted the govt had not used any unconstitutional words. Referring to editorials in some newspapers, he said they criticised the governor’s behaviour, calling it unbefitting and a historic blemish on the session. On allegations of price hikes, Siddaramaiah said excise duty, stamp duty, registration fee and tax on petrol and diesel were lower compared to other states. “Even though there have been price revisions in the budget over the past three years, the increase is significantly lower compared to other states. The allegation of excessive taxation is far from the truth,” he said.
