The State has managed to reduce revenue and fiscal deficits and achieve growth despite keeping inflation in control, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan told the media in Chennai.

The Finance Minister attributed the revenue growth to responsible fiscal management and optimized spending, and blamed the previous AIADMK regime for mismanagement from 2016 to 2019.

“We should reduce spending in a way that would reduce the burden on poor people and grow revenue. The State’s Own Tax Revenue (SOTR) has increased by 55%, and non-tax revenue is up by 75% in the first quarter of the current financial year (Q1 FY23),” he remarked.

The Union government is attempting to control control the functioning of state governments by capping their borrowing capacity, Rajan said. 

Briefing reporters, he said the Union government has fixed an annual borrowing limit of ₹83,955 crore for Tamil Nadu. “I think they are trying to control how we work and how we act. I think they want only one authority in Delhi and everybody else to submit.”

Noting it as an infringement of the independence of states, Thiaga Rajan said it has been happening often for the last seven years. “It is not happening only to Tamil Nadu. It is happening to every state.” Pointing out that acts of bringing laws on subjects on the state list appeared to be an attempt to trample states’ rights, he said Tamil Nadu would, however, record effective growth. The elected government in the state has certain powers, but the Centre is dictating how much it should borrow and where to generate income.