Tamil Nadu deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam presenting the budget in the assembly on Thursday (TOI photo ... Read More

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government stuck to its target of lowering the fiscal deficit from 4.14% of the GSDP in 2016-17 to 2.82% in 2017-18 due to buoyancy in revenue collection after implementation of the goods and services tax, said deputy chief minister O Panneerselvam on Thursday.

Presenting the 2018-19 state budget in the assembly , Panneerselvam, who also holding the finance ministry, said the government didn’t meet its revenue target and revised it downwards for the year 2017-18 due to lowering of revenue from liquor.

“There is a significant fall in the growth of the state’s own tax revenue in 2017-18 due to fall in commercial tax and state excise which have negatively impacted the revenue receipts,” he said.

The government’s total debt is expected to be Rs 3.55 lakh crore at the end of next financial year which is 22.29% of the GSDP against the debt-GSDP norm of 25%.

The government estimates its own tax revenue to be Rs 1.12 lakh crore in 2018-19 against Rs 98,693 crore in 207-18. The government, which had initially opposed the implementation of the GST, estimates the revenue from GST alone to be Rs 86,859 crore.

Panneerselvam said the government was confident that the economy would pick up in the next financial year. “The economy is slowly picking up which is evident from the GSDP growth at 8.03% in 2017-18,” he said.

School education department has received the maximum allocation for 2018-19 at Rs 27,205.88 crore.

The government has prepared a comprehensive flood management plan for south and north Chennai to mitigate flood problems and sought Rs 2055.67 crore and Rs 1,243.15 crore from the Centre in 2018-19.

The police department was allocated Rs 7,877.58 crore and the government proposes to increase the CM’s constabulary medals from 1,500 to 3,000.

The deputy CM praised Dravidian movement for the state's progress across all fields.

Earlier, as Panneerselvam started to read the state’s budget, DMK legislators, wearing black shirts in protest against the Centre for not constituting the Cauvery Management Board, walked out of the House.

