TN opposition stages walkout during budget
Opposition parties Congress, Left parties, DMK and DMDK staged a walk-out as Tamil Nadu's Finance Minister, O Panneerselvam, presented the interim budget. The opposition said that they were not allowed to speak on matters of public importance and hence, they walked out from the assembly. DMK leader Stalin said that the state's debt during AIADMK rule is 235% higher than previous DMK regime.
What is an interim budget?
An interim budget is a budget presented by the ruling party during an election year. Generally, governments do not make changes in the taxes, and leave it to the new government which passes a new budget.
TN finance minister presents interim budget
O Panneerselvam, the finance minister of Tamil Nadu presented the interim budget with a deficit of Rs.36,740 crores owing to poor tax collection and expenditure on welfare schemes. The revenue deficit of the state rose to a five-year high of Rs.9,155 crores. The total debt of the state has increased to Rs.2.11 lakh crore, one-fifth of the TN's Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).
Power sector receives highest allocation
While the power sector received the maximum allocation of Rs.13,820 crores, Rs.5,500 crores were allocated for food subsidy and Rs.713 crores for state disaster relief fund in the wake of floods last year.
No new taxes announced
The tenure of the Tamil Nadu legislative assembly ends in May'16. Therefore, the budget presented by the finance minister, O Panneerselvam, will be for the period from 1st Apr'16 till the new government presents its own budget. The minister blamed the falling crude prices for lower tax realisations but did not propose new taxes. The state will implement the 7th pay commission in 2017-18.
State may go bankrupt: Stalin
The state may make amendments to the Tamil Nadu Fiscal Responsibility Act, 2003 to move beyond the benchmark 3% limit of fiscal deficit. The opposition parties have questioned the running of state finances and said that the sorry state of affairs may lead to bankruptcy. The high deficit is on account of schemes such as free distribution of laptops, kitchen appliances, televisions etc.
