Stalin demands new TN budget for 2020-21 in view of pandemic

DMK president M.K. Stalin on Wednesday urged Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami to present a new budget for 2020-21 in view of the crisis caused to the financial health of the state by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There is a compulsion to present a new budget and the Chief Minister cannot escape the responsibility. The budget already presented in the Assembly has failed because of the crisis in industrial development, economic development and financial growth of the state,” Mr Stalin said in a statement.

He said even though the state government had constituted a committee under the chairmanship of former Reserve Bank governor C. Rangarajan to recommend short and medium-term responses to COVID-19 in Tamil Nadu, five months would be wasted by the time the committee was ready with its report.

Mr Stalin pointed out that it was a matter of concern that the Chief Minister was not ready to understand the financial condition of the state because the budget, estimates and allocations were out of shape and required restructuring.

“The state government is reeling under a debt of Rs 4.56 lakh crore and it was estimated that tax revenues would bring Rs 1.33 lakh crore. Now even the revenue is under danger,” Mr Stalin said.

He said while the AIADMK government had placed the state under the grip of revenue deficit, financial deficit and unprecedented debt, the pandemic had further aggravated the situation for Tamil Nadu.

“The announcements in the budget are in the intensive care units,” he remarked.

Mr Stalin said agriculture, small and medium industries were in crisis and every family needed immediate cash relief.