Karnataka budget gives priority to improving land record management, streamlining GST, providing drought relief

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], February 16 : In his budget presentation, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced a slew of initiatives aimed at improving land record management, providing drought relief, and streamlining the Goods and Services Tax (GST) system.
The bhoo-Suraksha scheme will be launched on a pilot basis, to digitize land records, preventing forgery and ensuring transparency. The land extent in Akarbands and RTCs will be interlinked for faster service delivery to landowners.
Phodi Abhiyana 2.0 will roll out in remaining villages with multiple ownership "phodi-free" (single ownership) to facilitate easier transactions.
Dharakastu Phodi Abhiyana will voluntarily prepare land records for undisputed lands, smoothening the correction process for farmers. Property and title deeds will be issued to landowners through a phased drone survey of the entire state. Mutations without notice will be automatically approved, except for specific cases, improving efficiency.
"The 'Bhoo-Suraksha' scheme will be rolled out on pilot basis to provide the citizen computerized records online by scanning land, survey and registration records of Revenue Department, by this we can computerize and maintain the old records permanently without allowing to create fake records. Digitalization of Aakarbands will be undertaken for the speedy delivery of services to landholders by interlinking the land extent in Akarband and RTCs." said CM Siddaramaiah.
The programme to issue property and title deeds to landowners by conducting drone surveys of about 30,700-gram thana areas in the State in a phased manner will be extended throughout the State.
In order to provide good governance, action will be taken to enable the mutations without notice (except pouthi Katha and mutation through J-slip) to be automatically approved in the prescribed software.
"Accurate digital documents will be prepared and issued to the public within a short period by conducting land survey work using modern equipment. Drone and other equipment required for this will be supplied to land survey offices in all districts. The Government has identified Tanda, Hatti, Haadi, Doddi, Palya, Majire, Camp, Colony and other habitations with no documents and declared them as Revenue Village and Sub villages; action will be taken to issue title deeds to around 2 lakh residents. By using the Land Beat App RTC's flagged Government land in Bhoomi software will be monitored and preserved against encroachment," Karnataka CM said.
In the current year, Rs. 80 crore has been allocated for the construction of 42 Taluka office complexes and Rs. 50 crore is provided for 14 district office complexes.
Speaking about drought measures, CM Siddaramaiah said, "During 2023-24, the Government has declared drought in 223 talukas. The State Government has submitted several memorandums to the Central Government seeking an allocation of Rs. 18,171 crore to provide relief to drought-hit farmers."
"Rs. 629 crore has been released for input subsidy to 33.19 lakh farmers up to Rs. 2,000 to each. Mini fodder kits have been distributed to reduce the severity of drought for Rs. 20 crore. Rs. 200 crore is provided to augment the underground water level under the Krishi Bhagya scheme. During the current year, action will be taken to initiate various drought mitigation measures at a total cost of Rs. 500 crore from the State Disaster Relief Fund. The 15th Finance Commission had fixed the compensation amount based on the expenditure during 2011-17. As a result, it has allocated a dismal amount to the State under SDRF for 2021-26," CM Siddaramaiah said in a budget speech.
While speaking on the revenue front, CM Siddaramaiah said, "Two State benches of the GST Appellate Tribunal will be constituted and operationalized this year, which would benefit a large number of taxpayers by providing an effective platform for adjudicating disputes. The department is developing a new interactive user application based on Real-time GST Database Management and an Artificial Intelligence-driven Analytical system. Data Accuracy and Predictive Analysis would enhance revenue mobilisation. e-Training will be provided to officers and officials of the Commercial Taxes Department to develop technical expertise, legal acumen and analytical perspective. This will help in exploring new tax avenues and also help in tackling fraudulent registrations."
The revenue collection target of Rs.1,10,000 crore has been fixed to
Commercial Tax Department for the year 2024-25, said CM Siddaramaiah.