These days, the growth targets of state governments are no longer puffed up by billion-dollar dreams. The central government and the pandemic have neatly squeezed their revenue streams over the past few years, rendering them unarmed on the battlefield of competition. Now, cajoling (and even hijacking) private capital is a way of life. Under strain, they walked a tightrope and even fell neck-deep in debt. Then they salivated at the prospect of earning a quick buck by plugging revenue leakages, that too without annoying the eternally vexed taxpayers, the backbone of democracy, aka the vote bank. But it wasn’t a cakewalk.
For Tamil Nadu, the land of Tamils and not a Nadu (country) within the country, it’s been a persistent fight for pride, not so much for their economic well-being. Twitter erupted in collective ire every time people felt hurt. It’s a long list: the PM’s ‘revadi culture’ taunt, the Guv’s objections to the bills passed by the state legislature, and the ongoing legal fracas over jallikattu. New polemics and diatribes surfaced and were defused just as Cyclone Mandous, which threatened to leave a trail of destruction in its wake, faded into a meditative depression and humiliated the weathermen in the process.
Palanivel Thiaga Rajan, the finance minister, had two missions in hand, one to create and the other to destroy. His prime job was to build state finance from the dumps, and during his leisure, he tried to demolish the opposition, on Twitter. He knew the enormity of the revenue leakages from the start. In an exclusive chat with TNIE a year ago, he even quantified the loss: 2–3% of gross state domestic product (GSDP). That’s massive when you consider the state’s growing GSDP, now projected to cross `24 lakh crore in 2022–23. Ideally, all of DMK’s election promises and welfare schemes could be funded in one shot. That is, if the leaky tap is fixed.
What TN is witnessing right now is a low-key but mammoth data-driven campaign: weeding out illegal beneficiaries of social security pension schemes meant for destitute senior citizens, differently-abled persons and widows; rejigging electricity connections for free power supply; cleaning up the PDS system of ration cards earmarked for the poorest families; and streamlining commercial taxes. The two-fold mission is to achieve higher transparency and improved revenues. If anyone asks me to name the biggest achievement of the DMK government, it is this quiet revolution that is sweeping the state now.
Data is to aid policies and is not to be shunned to escape political discomfiture. It drives transparency and efficiency by a long shot. The civil supplies and consumer protection department recently moved 2.5 lakh families holding an Antyodaya ration card that’s meant for the poorest in the income pyramid to the non-priority household category. More than half of the 2.7 crore electricity consumers have so far linked their Aadhaar with the state-run power distribution company, in an exercise that will eventually weed out multiple connections under one name.
The DMK still gets nightmares about the politically-sensitive electricity, one of the issues that cost them the 2011 election. But the fact remains that the government can’t sustain the electricity business that has mopped up nearly Rs 13,000 crore in losses and Rs 1.6 lakh crore in debt while keeping on supplying free electricity worth a few thousand of crores.
While there has been substantial progress in fixing the problem with the help of data, the biggest leakage is yet to be tackled. Alcohol retailing, managed by the state-run TASMAC, remains one of the biggest guzzlers. Cops search every car returning from Pondicherry for the half-emptied bottle and foil ‘smuggling’ activities. But most of the liquor outlets in the state do not give you a bill for the liquor you purchase. They love cash. As per PTR, the movement of alcohol outside the excise net is estimated to be as high as 50%. That is massive. But the question is: can that tap be closed?
Anto T Joseph
Resident Editor, Tamil Nadu
anto@newindianexpress.com