CHENNAI: Launching a sharp attack on the DMK government, the BJP and its allies on Tuesday termed it the interim budget a self-praising document that lacked concrete welfare measures and pushed Tamil Nadu deeper into debt. “For people who have faced deception for five years, this is nothing new,” BJP state president Nainar Nagenthran said.
Union minister L Murugan said the budget contains no welfare schemes for the people and accused the DMK of focusing on praising the “ruling family” instead of addressing public concerns. He claimed the government’s only achievement was pushing the state’s debt beyond Rs 10 lakh crore and questioned how the borrowed funds were utilised.
Pointing out that the revenue deficit has been pegged at Rs 48,696 crore and that the government plans to borrow Rs 1,78,308 crore in 2026-27, taking the state’s total debt to Rs 10,71,770 crore by March 31, 2027, BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan demanded a white paper detailing the utilisation of borrowed funds.
In the past year alone, she said, Tamil Nadu borrowed Rs 1.84 lakh crore. Alleging that the DMK had followed an “empty advertisement model” of governance, she said the interim budget was filled with wordplay meant to mislead the public.
She further claimed the government had acknowledged that the state’s own tax revenue would rise due to trade agreements signed by the BJP-led union government with the United States and the European Union.
Former BJP state president K Annamalai alleged that the DMK, which failed to fulfil promises made to teachers, doctors and youth, “lied” in its “final budget”. He accused the government of blaming the centre for delays in metro rail projects in Madurai and Coimbatore without submitting revised project reports.
PMK president Anbumani Ramadoss alleged that Tamil Nadu had been turned into a “debt-ridden state”, claiming that 90% of its own tax revenue had been matched by borrowings, raising per capita debt to `1.27 lakh.