Chennai: Tamilnadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan will present the State Budget for 2022-23 at 10 am on 18 March in the Assembly hall at Fort St George.
Soon after the Budget is presented, the Speaker will chair a meeting of the Business Advisory Committee (BAC) in his chamber to decide how many days the House will be in session.
Several important announcements are likely to be made in the Budget, sources said. With the ruling DMK trouncing the opposition in the local body polls, the Tamilnadu government may get into a reform mode to beef up its revenues, prune down its expenses, debt, interest outgo and others.
In an interview, PTR said that he has improved the Finance department’s administrative strength, capability and model significantly enough, and is looking to increase revenue streams by plugging leakages.
‘We are not getting the revenue that we’re supposed to get from commercial tax, mining, and liquor/excise, among others,’ he said.
Chennai Water Resources Foundation Chairman Ramesh K.P. said: ‘The Tamilnadu government had appointed a 14-member committee headed by retired IAS officer V Thiruppugazh to look into the planning of stormwater drains after the heavy rains and deluge that had hit the state in the past few years. However here also it has not gone forward due to paucity of funds and the expectations are on the new budget.’
‘The upcoming Tamilnadu budget can be reformatory in some aspects. They can roll back petrol price reduction citing the international hike in crude oil prices. The other welfare measures can be met comfortably as one time cash payments like the Covid-19 relief will not be there,’ Dr Gowri Ramachandran, an economist, said.
It will be an e-budget for the second year. On 24 March, the Finance Minister will present a vote on accounts for the first few months of the financial year, 2022-23 and final supplementary estimates for 2021-22.
Speaker M Appavu said the Question Hour during the upcoming Assembly session will be ‘telecast live’ like last time. When asked when the entire session will be telecast live, Appavu said there were some technical issues, and it will be done ‘step by step’.