Two weeks after Supreme Court termed Governor R N Ravi’s reservation of 10 bills illegal and erroneous in law and laid down timelines, he cleared four bills pending since Dec.Govt sources said bills still pending with the governor are the Tamil Nadu Fiscal Responsibility (Amendment) Bill, 2024, and the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2024. “The governor gave assent on April 17 and 18 to four bills, and the state govt immediately gazetted them,” an official source said.
The bills that were cleared are the Tamil Nadu Local Authorities Entertainments Tax (Amendment) Bill, 2024, enabling a 10% levy on tickets to concerts, dramas, shows, or any other event conducted by any institution; the Tamil Nadu Public Buildings (Licensing) Amendment Bill, which aims to simplify the procedure for granting licences to public buildings; the Tamil Nadu Panchayats (Seventh Amendment) Bill, which substitutes the expressions “ordinary election” and “casual election” with “general election” and “mid-term election”; and the Tamil Nadu Private Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2024, which includes eight private universities under the law.
The pending Fiscal Responsibility (Amendment) Bill aims to extend the timeframe for fiscal targets. Specifically, it seeks to extend the time limit set out to eliminate the revenue deficit by 2026-27. It also aims to reduce the fiscal deficit to 3% of GSDP by March 31, 2026, to use the maximum fiscal space available. The finance commission recommended fixing the net borrowing limit at 4%, 3.5%, and 3% of GSDP for the years 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24 to 2025-26, respectively.
The other pending bill, the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, addresses financial irregularities within cooperative societies. It seeks to empower the registrar of societies to place a board indulging in financial irregularities under suspension immediately after issue of notice of supersession. The bill also allows for appointment of an interim administrator for the society.
