Bengaluru, Mar 7 (PTI) Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday slammed the opposition BJP for calling the state budget a 'Halal Budget' and 'Pakistan Budget'.

The BJP termed it "appeasement" and the CM said the saffron party's statement was a reflection of their "rotten mindset".

In a post on ‘X’ with a photograph of Siddaramaiah in skull cap, the BJP said: "Scam CM @siddaramaiah in Karnataka presents a Halal Budget—appeasement at its peak!" Addressing reporters after presenting his 16th budget, the chief minister said minorities do not mean Muslims only, but there are Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and Christians in that category.

He also clarified that Rs 250 crore has been earmarked for Christians as well.

"The size of the budget is Rs 4.09 lakh crore and if we give Rs 4,500 crore to the minorities, the BJP calls it ‘Halal Budget’. Their statement shows their rotten mindset," Siddaramaiah said.

When a reporter asked him about the allocation for the Other Backward Castes, who constitute 56 per cent of the population, Siddaramaiah said Rs 4,300 crore has been earmarked for them. Along with that Rs 42,018 crore has been reserved for the Scheduled Caste Sub-Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan (SCSP-TSP), he said.

"We have made huge allocations for SCSP-TSP. Let the BJP, which ruled the Centre for 17 years, show that the Centre or the BJP ruled states have formulated SCSP-TSP provisions," the CM said.

He charged that the BJP leaders in Karnataka lack the courage to ask the Centre to replicate the way Karnataka has introduced SCSP-TSP. "But they do come to tell us that we are giving money to the Muslims. What moral rights they have to question us?" the chief minister sought to know.

He said the BJP had displayed its disrespect for secularism by calling the Karnataka budget a 'Halal Budget' and 'Pakistan Budget'. "This is a country of all the communities, which the BJP should know," Siddaramaiah said.

The chief minister said the budget he presented has far-sightedness and gives an equality, social and economic growth oriented budget. We follow the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act.

He said the size of the budget in 2024-25 was Rs 3.71 lakh crore budget, which has gone up to Rs 4,09,549 crore – an increase of Rs 38,166 crore. The growth rate of the budget is 10.3 per cent.

"This year (2024-25) the borrowings were Rs 1,05,246 crore, but next year's borrowing will be Rs 1,16,000 crore, which means we are borrowing Rs 10,000 crore," he pointed out.

The chief minister explained that, as per the FRBM Act, borrowing should be less than 25 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for a strong fiscal health.

"Karnataka’s borrowings are at 24.91 per cent. We are well within provisions of the FRBM Act. Financial deficit should not be more than three per cent as per FRBMA. We are at 2.95 per cent," Siddaramaiah said.

He said there are three parameters to gauge fiscal discipline – first, the state should be revenue surplus, fiscal deficit should not be more than three per cent, and the third is that borrowings of the state should not be more than 25 per cent of the GSDP.

"We are following the fiscal discipline and we are offering programmes for poor, women, weaker section, minorities, workers and farmers," Siddaramaiah said.

"We are financially strong, we are following the financial discipline and we are as per the provisions of the FRBM Act. Also, we have also kept the promises we made," Siddaramaiah said.

The chief minister also said that in 2024-25, the state had earmarked Rs 52,009 crore for the five guarantees, but in the next fiscal Rs 51,034 crore has been allocated.

"We reserved less money for the guarantees compared to previous year because we were paying cash to the beneficiaries of the Anna Bhagya guarantee at Rs 34 per kg every month in place of food grains, but this year we got rice from FCI at Rs 22 per kg," he explained.

The five guarantees were the key pre-poll promises of the Congress government. They are ‘Gruha Jyothi’ offering 200 units electricity free to every household, ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme promising Rs 2,000 to every woman head of a family and ‘Anna Bhagya’ offering 10 kg rice to every member of the BPL family a month.

The 'Yuva Nidhi' promises Rs 3,000 dole to unemployed graduates and Rs 1,500 to unemployed diploma holders for two years (in the 18-25 age-group) and ‘Shakti’ scheme permits free travel for Karnataka women to travel within the state in government non-luxury buses.

Siddaramaiah said, "The BJP has said that the state would go bankrupt by implementing the five guarantees. Has it happened? Do they know the meaning of bankruptcy?” He said the BJP is now replicating the Karnataka model of guarantees in Delhi, Haryana, MP, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

According to the chief minister, the annual expenditure on the guarantees per constituency is Rs 232 crore on an average.

"Isn’t a development if people are given money? Won’t it spur economic activities if the purchasing capacity of people increases?” he argued. PTI GMS GMS KH