AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami on Wednesday dismissed the first budget of the TVK government as a "huge disappointment," stating he would give the budget an overall score of "zero", alleging a lack of substantive announcements.
Criticising the TVK's first 85 days in power, Palaniswami alleged that the government has failed to introduce a single new scheme, accusing it of merely renaming and pasting "stickers" on existing AIADMK and DMK welfare programmes.
"This is TVK's first budget. The TVK Chief Minister and his ministers had promised that it would be a great budget, but there is nothing significant in it. It merely repackages existing schemes by renaming them and putting new labels on them. This government has not introduced a single new scheme. For the past 85 days, it has been governing through speeches and slogans," he said.
Palaniswami targeted Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay for ignoring major electoral promises in the budget, including the Rs 2,500 women's honorarium, six free LPG cylinders, full farm loan waivers.
"There are no new schemes in this budget, and the promises made during the election campaign have not been fulfilled. Vijay had promised to increase the Rs 1,000 assistance for women to Rs 2,500, provide six free LPG cylinders, waive farmers' loans, and implement several other election promises. However, these promises remain unfulfilled," he said.
"Even the promise of waiving farmers' loans has not been fully implemented. Today's budget contains neither any major new schemes nor any concrete announcement to fulfil the promises made during the election campaign," he added.
Pointing to an overall state debt of Rs 10,98,768 crore and a fiscal deficit of Rs 1,21,819 crore, Palaniswami demanded an explanation from the state government on how it plans to fund programmes, noting the administration has already borrowed Rs 20,000 crore in its short tenure.
The AIADMK chief also expressed scepticism over the state government's newly announced five-member expert committee aimed at stabilising state finances, alleging that similar to the previous DMK regime, this committee will merely serve as a vehicle to justify further state borrowing.