In the 2023-24 budget, Tamil Nadu has announced significant investments in education, health, and infrastructure besides fulfilling a key DMK poll promise: INR 1,000 monthly cash assistance for eligible women homemakers. With an array of schemes to improve civil services coaching, cultural projects, and a significant focus on transport and road infrastructure, the budget gave a special focus on the government's commitment to enhancing the city's infrastructure and quality of life, particularly in North Chennai. The major highlight of the budget presented by the state finance minister Palanivel Thiagarajan was the Rs 1000 cash assistance for “eligible households”, indicating a possible selection process to determine eligible women heads of the family. “I am very happy to announce that Rs 1,000 per month will be provided to women heads of eligible households from the upcoming financial year. Women heads of families who have been affected adversely by the steep increase in cooking gas price by the Union government and the overall price rise will greatly benefit from this scheme,” the minister said in his Budget speech. The scheme will be rolled out on September 15, the birth anniversary of DMK founder and former chief minister C N Annadurai. While there is an allocation of Rs 7,000 crore in the Budget for the scheme, the government is reportedly taking steps to prepare a detailed database on the basis of necessary economic and social conditions to select eligible women homemakers for the scheme. The budget also reports a significant reduction in the annual revenue deficit from approximately Rs 62,000 crore to around Rs 30,000 crore in the Revised Estimates for the current year. This reduction is even more impressive considering it is around Rs 5,000 crore lower than the pre-COVID year of 2019-20. “The main reason for the fiscal stress faced by the government at the time of assuming office was the fall in tax revenue in the previous years. The state’s own tax revenues which were at a healthy 8 percent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) during 2006-11 have witnessed a precipitous fall in the last 10 years and reached 5.58 per cent in 2020-21. This is much lower when compared to other large States such as Maharashtra and Karnataka. Though the Tax-GSDP ratio has increased to 6.11 per cent in the current year due to the efforts of this government in the last two years, concerted action is needed to raise it further to find financial resources for welfare schemes,” Rajan said in his Budget speech. While Rs 40,299 crore has been allocated to the school education department, a total of Rs 6,967 crore has been allocated for higher education besides Rs 2,877 crore, including for projects such as transforming 71 government Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) to Centres of Excellence. After a state planning commission study found that the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme rolled out in the state on a pilot basis in 1,543 elementary schools helped to increase attendance in 1,319 schools, the scheme will now be all the 30,122 government primary schools in the state from the coming academic year. Rs 500 crore was allotted for this scheme and it would benefit 18 lakh students of classes 1 to 5. The budget speech has also taken note of a significant increase in the enrollment of female students in colleges. “Compared to the year 2021-22, 29 per cent more girls have entered colleges this year, which is an addition of 20,477 girl students,” said Thiagarajan, adding that increased enrollment of female students in colleges is a testimony to the success of Moovalur Ramamirtham Ammaiyar Pudhumai Penn Scheme. Under the ‘Pudhumai Penn Scheme’ as it is popularly called, all girls studying in classes 6 to 12 in government schools are provided Rs 1,000 per month for their higher education. At present, 2.20 lakh girl students benefit from this scheme. Noting that the number of students from Tamil Nadu clearing the civil services examinations has been on the decline in the last few years, Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation (TNSDC) will implement a scheme with an aim to reverse the trend in which civil services aspirants will be provided with better facilities and materials. “Every year 1,000 civil services aspirants will be short-listed through a screening test. Each aspirant will be provided Rs.7,500 per month for 10 months to prepare for the preliminary examination. Those students who clear the preliminary examination will be provided a lumpsum amount of Rs 25,000. For this programme, an amount of Rs.10 crore has been allocated to TNSDC in the Budget Estimates 2023-24,” Rajan said. Noting that there are some pockets in Chennai city, such as the North Chennai region, that are deficient in infrastructure and basic amenities, Rajan announced the “North Chennai Development Project" at a cost of Rs.1,000 crore over the next three years. A four-lane elevated flyover on Anna Salai from Teynampet to Saidapet at a cost of Rs 621 crore in the coming year is among other projects announced for Chennai city. The budget also announced the government plan to implement the Metro Rail projects in Coimbatore at an estimated cost of Rs 9,000 crore and in Madurai for Rs 8,500 crore. The Tamil Nadu Coastal Restoration Mission to prevent sea erosion, reduce marine pollution, and conserve marine biodiversity with World Bank assistance was also announced in the budget at an estimated cost of Rs.2,000 crore in the next 5 years. In the transportation sector, the state government unveiled ambitious plans for road infrastructure, including widening roads, constructing elevated flyovers, and developing modern transit junctions. With a substantial allocation of Rs 19,465 crore for the Highways and Minor Ports Department, the state also plans to procure 1,000 new buses and renovate 500 old ones at a cost of Rs 500 crore. This is besides an estimated allocation of Rs 2,800 crore as subsidies for free bus travel for women, Rs 1,500 crore for student concession in bus fares, and Rs 2,000 crore as diesel subsidy. On the cultural front too, the government announced plans to establish a memorial for Tamil martyrs and a grant of Rs 5 crore to translate the works of B R Ambedkar into Tamil. An "International Conference on Tamil Computing" to promote Tamil as a global language in the technology sector, Madurai, the native of finance minister Rajan, will soon have an eight-storeyed modern library in two lakh square feet with 3.50 lakh books in Tamil and English relating to various subjects like literature, culture, science, engineering, law, and medicine. “This modern temple of knowledge in Southern Tamil Nadu will be named Kalaignar Centenary Library,” the budget speech said. (Late DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi is fondly called as Kalaignar.) An allocation of Rs 100 crore for “Annal Ambedkar Business Champions Scheme‟ providing 35 percent capital subsidy and offer 6 per cent interest subvention for loans to procure machineries and equipment for SC, ST entrepreneurs, a total allocation of Rs 1000 crores for a new scheme called “Iyothee Thass Pandithar Habitation Development Scheme” to ensure basic amenities in Adi Dravidar habitations in both urban and rural areas for a comprehensive socio-economic development over a period of five years were among other major announcements made in the budget.
