
VIRUDHUNAGAR: The union government is yet to release funds for many schemes in Tamil Nadu, including Rs 2,000 crore for Samagra Shiksha Abhiyaan, and the state has been spending its funds to implement the centre’s schemes, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu said on Sunday.
Talking to reporters in Mallankinaru, Thennarasu said Rs 26,000 crore for the CMRL project is spent by state government. “The state has been spending more money to implement the PM’s housing scheme,” Thennarasu said, urging the union government to release funds allocated to the states.
The centre has been focusing on governments that are either run by the BJP or by its alliance partners, he alleged. “For example, funds released to a state like Uttar Pradesh is about Rs 31,039 crore. For Bihar, it has been Rs 17,403 crore. However, the entire funds released to the all four southern states like Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu stands at Rs 27,336 crore,” Thennarasu said.
“Because of the union government’s step-motherly treatment, state finances are a concern. Despite this scenario, we are managing our finances and we can perform well,” he added.
Thennarasu also dismissed the claims made by AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami about the state finances including borrowings. “A person can make such statements only without a basic understanding of economics,” Thennarasu said.
“In 2011, the size of the state budget was Rs 1,02,000 crore. During that period, the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) was Rs 7,51,000 crore. The budget last year was Rs 4,12,000 crore and GSDP rose to Rs 31,55,000 crore,” he said, adding that as a state’s economy grows, the ability to settle debt increases.
Claiming that state’s borrowings are within the limits prescribed by the 15th Finance Commission, Thennarasu said, “The commission in 2021-22 prescribed the limit as 28% but our borrowings stood at 27.01% and again in 2022-23, the commission prescribed 29.3% but our borrowings stood at 26.87%.
Palaniswami himself had mentioned that the government received an additional Rs 1.1 lakh crore as revenues through commercial taxes and this conveys our ability to manage our finances as we are using several technological initiatives like data analytics to maintain our financial stability.”
Referring to natural calamities over the last two-three years, Thennarasu said the state government released funds from its finances and the centre had released only Rs 726 crore and that too was Tamil Nadu’s share of the state disaster fund.
On TVK leader Vijay’s plan to meet protesters at Parandur on Monday, Thennarasu said anybody can meet them.
Central funds spent on useless things: BJP chief
DHARMAPURI: K Annamalai on Sunday said the state does not use funds sanctioned by the centre under various schemes to provide basic amenities to people and is spending them on “useless things”. Talking to reporters, he said,
“Tamil Nadu has a debt of about Rs 10 lakh crore, and it would take several years for the debt to be settled. If TN passes a budget of Rs 3 lakh crore, we do not know where Rs 60,000-Rs 70,000 crore of it is utilised. If it is used for people, we can accept it. But it is used for vote bank politics, and we oppose this strongly,” he said.