Sound and fury
April 04, 2021
An AIADMK cadre dressed up as former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran during an election campaign for the TN Assembly polls - Govarthan M
An AIADMK cadre dressed up as former Chief Minister MG Ramachandran during an election campaign for the TN Assembly polls - Govarthan M×
Parties and their manifestoes have largely skirted pressing socio-economic concerns
As a slew of States, besides West Bengal, go to the poll tomorrow, it is a good time to ask a basic question: Is the political discourse attuned to addressing basic socio-economic concerns of the States? It is hard to answer as the manifestoes of all parties in the fray have promised far beyond the usual power, roads and water to houses for all and government jobs for every family, but without providing a roadmap on how these will materialise. Surely, more was expected in view of the prevailing Covid-induced economic crisis but parties have disappointed in their macro outlook, confining
April 01, 2021
As in other States, the Covid-19 pandemic had a disastrous effect on Karnataka’s fiscal health.
The lockdown and closure of economic activities had its effect leaving the State’s own tax revenues in 2020-21 lower than the budget estimate by ₹17,049 crore, and the tax devolution lower by ₹8,538 crore, partly due to lower central tax collections and partly due to the lower tax devolution resulting from the Fifteenth Finance Commission’s award.
M Govinda Rao, Chief Economic Advisor, Brickwork Ratings in his report on Karnataka Budget 2021-22, said “The shortfall in the total revenue receipts in the revised estimate was ₹20,211 crore. As a ratio of the GSDP, the revised estimate of revenue receipts at 5.3 percent was lower than the budgeted by almost one percentage point, and it was lower than the previous year’s actual collection by 0.8 percentage point.”
Freebies form the core of the promises made by the main parties in Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu, which has seen tumultuous political changes in the last five years, is set for one more round of a familiar battle in the Assembly election on April 6. Its two principal parties, the DMK and the ruling AIADMK, have stitched up pre-poll alliances and taken the lion’s share of the 234 seats to be contested. Both parties have, by and large, retained their allies of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. While the Congress, which appears to be enthused by the visits of its leader Rahul Gandhi to the State, occupies the second slot in the DMK-led alliance with 25 seats, its national-level adversary, the BJP, after aggressive posturing, has had to be content with the 20 seats allotted to it in the AIADMK-led coalition. As this is the first Assembly election after the passing of Jayalalithaa and M. Karunanidhi, the AIADMK, in power for the last 10 years, and the DMK, both shorn of charismatic leaders, have t
Bhartesh Singh Thakur and Geetanjali GayatriTribune News ServiceChandigarh, March 12
Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Friday presented the state's budget with an outlay of Rs 1.55 l
The union government on Wednesday released the 12th and final monthly instalment of revenue deficit grant of Rs 6,194.09 crore to the states. With the release of this installment, a total amount of Rs 74,340 crore has been released to eligible states as Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant (PDRD) in the current financial year, the ministry of finance said in a statement. 100 per cent of the amount recommended by the Fifteenth Finance Commission to 14 states has been released by the central government. The Fifteenth Finance Commission had recommended a total Post Devolution Revenue Deficit Grant of Rs 74,340 crore to 14 States in the financial year 2020-21.