Karnataka: CM Siddaramaiah begins department-wise pre-budget meetings

This will be Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's 16th budget as the Finance Minister in his four-decade-long career.

Minister for Large and Medium Industries M.B. Patil and senior officials of the concerned departments attended the meeting.

CM Siddaramaiah's economic advisor and MLA, Basavaraj Rayareddy, Additional Chief Secretary to CM L.K. Atheeq and other senior officers were also present.

Sources stated that the Karnataka government is preparing to call for a joint session in the first week of March and later present the budget.

The pre-budget meetings of various government departments are fixed between February 6-14.

The government is likely to finalise and announce the date of the budget in the next Cabinet meeting.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who had cancelled all his prior engagements due to knee pain for two days will now hold a series of meetings of all ministers.

Sources said that CM Siddaramaiah is all set to present the 2025-26 budget in March which is expected to touch Rs 4 lakh crore.

CM Siddaramaiah has picked Harvard alumnus Ritesh Kumar Singh to head the Finance Department ahead of the 2025-26 Budget.

CM Siddaramaiah had presented a Rs 3.71 lakh crore budget for 2024-25. The state government is spending Rs 52,000 crore every year for the five guarantee schemes.

Sources said that the state government is in a dilemma considering the expenditure on five guarantee schemes considered the flagship programmes of the Congress party at the national level.

However, the Congress legislators and ministers are in favour of the allocation of funds for the development, infrastructure spending and development of Bengaluru and major cities in the state.

Earlier, Karnataka Leader of Opposition (LoP) R. Ashoka had slammed the state government, saying that it is planning to borrow Rs 1 lakh crore in this budget again.

"The government plans to borrow Rs 1 lakh crore in this budget. During the BJP's tenure, surplus budgets were achieved without taking loans. Since Congress has come to power, Karnataka has turned into a debt-ridden state. They are taking the state towards a situation where it will have to beg like Kerala," he claimed.