Additional burden on Tamil Nadu as Centre denying due funds: Thennarasu

CHENNAI: Hitting out at the BJP government at the Centre for denying due allocation of funds to the state, Finance and Electricity Minister Thangam Thenarasu on Wednesday said that the state has been burdened with an additional expenditure of Rs 12,000 crore for the Chennai Metro Phase 2 project due to the delay in Union Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approval.

“If the Union government had allocated the funds for the metro project, we need not have allocated the Rs 12,000 crore in the budget. We could have utilised the funds for other essential projects, including procurement of 25,000 new buses, laying 30,000 km of village roads, constructing 3.5 lakh new houses or 50,000 new classrooms in the schools,” he said, replying to the debate on demand for grants for finance, human resources management, planning, development and special initiatives department and electricity in the Assembly.

The Minister noted that even as the Chennai Metro Phase 2 project awaited the CCEA approval for the past three years, the Union government approved Nagpur and Kochi Phase 2 metro projects in 2022 and the Gurugram and Pune metro projects in 2023.

Thennarasu termed the Centre’s allocation of a mere Rs 276 crore as a disaster relief fund while it demanded Rs 37,906 crore as a gross injustice. On BJP MLA Vanathi Srinivasan’s remark that UP has overtaken Tamil Nadu in the GST collection, he noted that the state loses Rs 20,000 crore annually due to the stoppage of GST compensation from June 30, 2022.

The Union government has mandated states to take over the losses of its DISCOMs in a prescribed percentage every year, as one of the conditions for availing an additional borrowing space of 0.5% of GSDP, he said. “This condition has created a situation, where the Tamil Nadu government will receive close to Rs 30,000 crore of additional borrowing space till 2024-25, but will have to pay approximately Rs 52,000 crore to Tangedco. Thus, the state has been forced to incur an additional amount of Rs 22,000 crore, as a result of this restrictive condition,” he noted.

Considering old pension scheme

Finance Minister Thennarasu said that the expert committee constituted to examine the feasibility of implementing the old pension scheme and make appropriate recommendations to the government has heard the views of various employee unions. “I would like to inform you that the government is considering the policy decision on the recommendations made by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority based on various comments and suggestions,” he informed the Assembly in response to the demand made by a couple of MLAs. DMK had promised in Assembly manifesto in 2021 that it would implement the old pension scheme if voted to power.

Electricity Department announcements

*2,500 new distribution transformers to address voltage fluctuation at Rs 200 crore

*Establishment of Green Energy Power Plants to a capacity of 2,000 MW by private companies to meet the renewable power obligations

*Development of software to identify solar rooftop capacity in Greater Chennai Corporation areas

*New policy for Wind and solar hybrid plants and Pumped Storage Hydro Project will be released