CHENNAI: The first budget of the DMK government led by Chief Minister MK Stalin presented today was largely sans populist measures except for the reduction in the petrol price by Rs 3 per litre.
Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan said the time is not yet ripe for fiscal consolidation given that the economy is just recovering from the impact of the successive waves of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, Finance Secretary S Krishnan said the aim of the government is to allocate much of the funds borrowed on capital expenditure; steps will be taken for that from this financial year onwards. He also announced that the reduction in petrol price would come into force from August 14.
"The revenue deficit for the year 2021-22 is expected to go up from the unrealistic Interim Budget Estimates of Rs.41,417.30 crore to Rs.58,692.68 crore in the Revised Budget Estimates 2021-22. I want to assure Members that this increase in revenue deficit is on account of the exceptional times that we find ourselves in and does not detract in the least from this Government’s commitment to fiscal rectitude and consolidation in the coming years, as emphatically indicated in the White Paper," the Finance Minister said.
The Minister charged that the previous AIADMK government had sanctioned several half-baked and ill-thought-out projects in the last minute in the highways and irrigation sectors in the guise of boosting capital expenditure to provide economic stimulus during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We have made a careful analysis of such projects. Only genuinely beneficial projects justified on the basis of detailed cost-benefit analysis will be implemented. Further some innovative schemes have been added. Accordingly, the overall capital outlay for the Revised Budget Estimates 2021-22 has been scaled down to Rs.42,180.97 crore from the Rs.43,170.61 crore provided in the Interim Budget Estimates,” Rajan added.
The Finance Minister said the total revenue receipt estimates range from Rs.2,18,991.96 crore in the Interim Budget Estimates to Rs.2,02,495.89 crore in the Revised Budget Estimates 2021-22. As against the Interim Budget Estimates of Rs.1,35,641.78 crore, the State’s Own Tax Revenue estimates in the Revised Budget Estimates 2021-22 are expected to be Rs.1,26,644.15 crore.
Non-tax revenue is estimated at Rs.14,139.01 crore in the Revised Budget Estimates 2021-22 which are marginally lower than the Interim Budget Estimates 2021-22, on account of the Covid-19 pandemic. The overall revenue expenditure is expected to be Rs.2,61,188.57 crore in the Revised Budget Estimates 2021-22.
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