Podcast: ‘This TN budget is the best the govt could have given’

The DMK government, under Chief Minister M K Stalin, presented its revised budget for 2021-22 on Friday (August 13).

Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan’s maiden budget was paperless and focused on a number of demand-side driven economic policies which included slashing excise duty on petrol by ₹3 – a much-needed relief for the common man.

Dharanidharan, a public affairs and political science analyst, tells us that this is the best possible budget that the DMK government could come up with considering Tamil Nadu’s precarious financial situation.

Dharanidharan, who is also a part of the executive council of the Dravidian Professional Forum, said the state has a revenue deficit of around Rs 63,000 crore, which is 3.16 percent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) — more than the entire normally permissible fiscal deficit.

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He also took a dig at the erstwhile AIADMK government for using COVID as an excuse for Tamil Nadu’s bad financial state. “Can’t just blame COVID because even before the pandemic Tamil Nadu’s finances were in dire states. COVID, of course, exacerbated the situation in last one year,” Dharanidharan said, adding that huge revenue deficit, financial mismanagement and corruption are the three main reasons why Tamil Nadu’s financial condition has deteriorated in the last decade.