Karnataka

The chief minister also announced provisions to allow farmers to avail of new loans. “To facilitate farmers to avail new loans, action will be taken by the government to issue clearance certificate by waiving the arrears form the defaulting account. For this purpose, ₹6,500 crore is earmarked in 2018-19 budget,” Kumaraswamy said.

The repayment of loans will be staggered over f our years, Kumaraswamy said later at a press conference. In the first year, the government is set to spend ₹10,500 crore towards the waiver package. Additionally, the government has also reiterated its commitment to allocate ₹4,000 crore as part of the farm loan waiver announced by the previous Siddaramaiah-led government in July 2017.

Siddaramaiah had announced waiver of up to ₹50,000 on agricultural loans taken from cooperative banks, worth ₹8,165 crore. Only ₹4,165 crore was released as of last year, Kumaraswamy said.

However, a separate set of guidelines issued later was at variance with t he Budget announcement. According to the guidelines, the state government is set to waive ₹30,266 crore of farm loans, benefitting 1.73 million farmers. Additionally, 2.76 million farmers who have made prompt payments on their loans are set to benefit from the incentive scheme of ₹25,000 per farmer, amounting to ₹6,893 crore.

In total, the package, according to the guidelines, will amount to ₹37,159 crore and will benefit all 4.48 million farmers who have availed of credit. The budget has also expanded in size since Siddaramaiah’s pre-election Budget in February from ₹2.09 lakh crore to ₹2.18 lakh crore. Receipts have increased from ₹2.02 lakh crore in the February Budget to ₹2.13 lakh crore.

The fiscal deficit has increased from 2.49% of gross state domestic product (GSDP) to 2.89% of GSDP. The state’s liabilities have increased by around ₹6,000 crore, from ₹2.86 lakh crore to ₹2.92 lakh crore, or an increase from 20.36% of GSDP to 20.75% of GSDP.

The loan waiver has come at a cost.to mobilise additional resources, the government has increased tax on petrol and diesel. For petrol the increase on tax is from 30% to 32%, and for diesel it is 21% from the earlier 19%. This will mean that petrol will be more expensive by ₹1.14 per litre and diesel by ₹1.12 per litre. Additional excise duty has also been increased on all slabs of Indian-made liquor by 4%.

While loan waivers are not very good for the economy, political compulsions had made one necessary in Karnataka’s case, economist D Rajashekhar of the Institute of Social and Economic Change said. Even so, he said, the announcement was a mere eyewash because there are likely to be many hurdles in its implementation. “The troubling aspect of the budget, however, is the increase in taxes on fuel. This is likely to have a cascading effect and will contribute to inflation,” Rajashekhar said.

The chief minister found support among some farmers’ organisations. Maruti Manpade, a member of the Karnataka Prantha Raitha Sangha, said the budget was a welcome step.

State Bharatiya Janata Party chief BS Yeddyurappa criticised the Budget, calling it a betrayal of the farmers and the state. ten notes given by the mandarins, then it is the notes that would do the talking and not the leaders. China experts confirmed to Hindustan Times that PM Modi singularly reached out to President Xi who directly responded within a day saying that he was open to dialogue with the Indian leader.

Even when the tense Doklam standoff was on from June to August last year, the Indian leadership was assured that President Xi’s word would prevail and the crisis would not result in a military skirmish. At the G-20 summit in Germany in July 2017, PM Modi again reached out to President Xi and the two leaders gave categorical instructions to the national security planners that the standoff should be resolved diplomatically. The informal summit between the two leaders was delayed due to President Xi’s preoccupation with the Communist Party Congress and then PM Modi’s focus on the Gujarat assembly elections. The Wuhan understanding, according to top national security experts, is not a compromise but a resolve that both countries will not needle each other on core national issues, maintain peace on the LAC with each side being allowed to build border infrastructure, and yet cooperate at a bilateral and global level on issues of convergence such as trade and climate change. centre heads on Thursday morning. Both Kumar and Khalid are due to submit their PHD theses by end of this month. But as Khalid is to be rusticated for a semester, it is not clear if he will be allowed to submit his thesis.

“I have received communication from the proctor’s office but I cannot comment on whether he will be allowed to submit his PHD or not till I have read the exact order,” said Umesh Ashok Kadam, dean of students.

The JNU students’ union termed the move “gross misuse of administrative power”.

“Till today, even after two years the Delhi police has not been able to file charge sheet against JNU students. The HLEC punishments are nothing but political conspiracy by the JNU administration, flouting all norms of conducting a free and fair inquiry,” the union said.

It also said it will take recourse to all legal-political remedies to overturn the order.