CHENNAI: Former finance minister and DMK leader Thangam Thennarasu on Tuesday questioned the TVK-led government’s claim of fiscal prudence following reports that Tamil Nadu’s borrowings through state government securities fell 21% in the first six months of the current financial year compared with the corresponding period last year.
In a social media post, Thennarasu said the government should disclose whether the decline in borrowings was due to improved financial management or a slowdown in capital expenditure and development works.
He also urged the government to disclose the capital expenditure incurred during the six-month period, the amount spent on new infrastructure projects, and the dues pending for projects initiated and implemented during the previous DMK regime.
He said the DMK government had allocated 57,231 crore for capital expenditure in the 2025-26 Budget and the state incurred 13,002.22 crore in capital expenditure during April-September 2025, according to the CAG’s provisional monthly accounts.
Questioning the borrowing plans for the second half of the financial year, he pointed out that the TVK government had proposed to borrow 48,000 crore during the October-December quarter, against the 23,500 crore raised in the preceding quarter. “This is more than double the amount borrowed in the previous quarter,” he said, questioning the government’s claim of improved fiscal management.
Further, he alleged that the government’s revenue was falling short of the estimates made in the Budget, leaving it struggling to undertake capital expenditure. He claimed that tenders worth thousands of crores of rupees had been cancelled, road conditions had deteriorated due to a lack of development works, and construction projects had come to a standstill, resulting in job losses.
