Deficits will further get reduced in final estimates: PTR

CHENNAI: State Finance Minister Palainivel Thiaga Rajan on Thursday said that Revenue and Fiscal deficits estimated in the Budget, this year, will further be reduced drastically.

"We have announced in the Budget that the Revenue deficit will be reduced by Rs 7,000 crore, but news coming from the final estimates, which will be out shortly, is that the state has performed exceedingly well and there will be more than 200 percent reduction in the Revenue deficit that was expected. As far as the fiscal deficit is concerned the estimated figure was 4.61 percent but now the deficit will be in the range of only 3.25 to 3.55 per cent," said the Finance Minister, while addressing the media in the Secretariat.

He also said that apart from reduction in deficit, there is also increase in State's own tax revenue in the first quarter of the ongoing financial year as the tax revenue increased by 50 per cent and non-tax revenue increased by around 74 per cent despite reducing fuel prices, making bus travel free for women and implementing several welfare measures for the people of the State.

The State government has also reduced the debt by Rs 15,000 crore and as a result the State has managed to reduce the interest rate for the debt by around Rs 1,000 crore. The government has also managed to reduce the inflation rate and the growth was so high that "even I would not have dreamt" this growth, said Palanivel Thiaga Rajan.

Union govt trying to curtail functionality of government:

The Finance Minister further said that the Union government by trying to impose restriction on the State governments in availing debt is indirectly curtailing the functionality and financial independence of the State government.

"The debt limit imposed on Tamil Nadu for the current financial year is Rs 83,955 crore. They cannot tell what to do and do not have powers to issue orders. By imposing restrictions they are trying to control the functioning of state government," he said.