By IANS,
Bangalore : The financial status of Karnataka remained healthy in the first nine months (April-Dec) of this fiscal (2010-11) on higher revenue receipts and commercial tax collection, Governor H.R. Bhardwaj said Thursday.
In his address to the joint session of the state legislature, which was disrupted by a strident opposition over land scam allegations, Bhardwaj informed the members that revenue receipts increased to Rs.38,688 crore during the first nine months of this fiscal, indicating an increase of 20 percent over the like period of the last fiscal (2009-10).
“Commercial tax collection was up by 30 percent, which is the highest among the neighbouring states,” he said but the address did not contain details.
Commercial taxes account for 62 percent of the state’s total receipts.
According to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, who holds the finance portfolio, the state’s share from central taxes and grants declined to Rs.8,546 crore during the first eight months (April-Nov) this fiscal from Rs.8,562 crore in the same period last fiscal.
“Revenue receipts during the first nine months of this fiscal were Rs.34,259 crore compared to Rs.28,522 crore in the same period of last fiscal, which is an increase of 20 percent,” Yeddyurappa said in a statement a month ago (Dec 6).
The state’s plan expenditure also increased 16 percent to Rs.14,505 crore while the non-plan expenditure was restricted to 10 percent from April to December.
“With the current 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 capital plan expenditure in the state at Rs.4,500 during last fiscal was one of the highest in the country, he said it was expected to go up to Rs.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.
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 trillion crore across the state. Karnataka has also been considered as the most favoured destination for investment,” he said, citing a recent investment assessment report of the industry chamber Assocham.
In this context, the governor declared that the state government would organise a global agriculture investment meet in June in Bangalore, where an agri-business policy would be announced to facilitate better backward and forward linkages for farmers.