‘AIADMK rule cut borrowing capacity’

CHENNAI: Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Friday told the Assembly that Tangedco had debt raised by more than a lakh crore in the AIADMK regime and its poor governance and finance management has also reduced TN’s borrowing capacity.

“Is this a sign of good governance?,” the Minister said while responding to AIADMK legislator Agri SS Krishnamurthy, who said the AIADMK regime in the last 10 years was an example for good governance as there was no increase in property taxes or electricity charges.

The debt of Tangedco and a few other allied public undertakings was around Rs 30,000 crore when the AIADMK assumed office in 2011. The debt had increased to Rs 1.34 lakh crore, he said and continued that the Union government had also reduced borrowing capacity of the state by Rs 5,400 crore due to the poor finance management of the previous AIADMK regime.

Earlier, the AIADMK legislator charged that the state budget for the financial year 2023-2024 lacks a people welfare scheme and it did not have aspects that promised economic growth. He called the budget as “propaganda” material and the DMK government continues to betray the people of the state.