Karnataka waives Rs 34,000 crore farm loans

Bengaluru, July 5 :  The Karnataka government on Thursday waived farm loans up to Rs 34,000 crore, giving relief to lakhs of farmers across the state.

"I propose to waive farm loans up to Rs 34,000 crore, with Rs 2 lakh per farmer family," Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said in the Assembly while presenting his maiden state budget for fiscal 2018-19.

The budget proposes to tax the people heavily by increasing the petrol fare by Rs 1.14 per litre and diesel by Rs 1.12 per litre.

"I also propose to increase excise duty on Indian made foreign liquor by 4 per cent to raise additional revenue for meeting the budget expenditure," said Kumaraswamy, who heads a coalition government of his Janata Dal-Secular and the Congress.

The Chief Minister has also proposed to increase power tariff by 20 paise per unit.

Promising to continue the flagship programmes of the previous Congress government, Kumaraswamy told the legislators that the overall size of the budget would be Rs 2,13,734 crore.

"I propose to allocate Rs 150 crore for agriculture development based on the Israeli model. We will focus on agriculture as well as the services sector," he said.