Busting DMK Fin Min PTR’s Bloated Claims Of TN’s Improving Finances  

On 29 August 2022, Tamil Nadu Finance Minister PTR Palanivel Thiagarajan tweeted a picture of a news article published by The Hindu which stated that the state’s own tax revenue has shot up by over 50% in the first quarter of the current fiscal.

In his tweet, PTR had targeted me and a few other entities that publish things to his liking saying “cultists & crap-posters like SGSuryah & his ecosystem of ignorant/bigoted bilge like Kathir & Commune will ignore the data & ask “what has the Govt done”“.

The DMK Minister has the habit of covering up his non-performance with bloated ego and arrogance. This time, he has done the same with some bloated claims.

Here’s some data for the kind attention of the Minister.

As evident from The Hindu article, the highest growth in the state’s own revenue has come from the State Excise Duty which reflects revenue from liquor.

Basically, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu has managed to sell more liquor to its people that has caused State Excise Duty to grow by 116.3%. Credit should go to PTR as after he took over as the Finance Minister, the Tamil Nadu government earned a whopping ₹36,013 crore from liquor sales in FY 2021-22, the highest ever.

Be that as it may. Even otherwise, the numbers for Q1 for this year is bound to be higher than Q1 last year because of the base effect as the entire country including Tamil Nadu was grappling with the second wave of the pandemic.

PTR must understand that not all Tamil people are dim-witted Dravidian Stockists to buy his arguments at face value.

The right thing to do would be to compare Q4 of last financial year with Q1 of this financial year and contrast Tamil Nadu’s performance vis a vis other similarly placed states.

Tamil Nadu’s own tax revenue (excluding State’s share of Union Taxes) for Q4 2021-22 was ₹37,718.09 crores. It has reduced to ₹35863.86 crores for the first quarter of this financial year.

Data compiled from CAG Monthly Key Indicators

Perhaps, The Hindu did not compare Q4 numbers of 2021-22 with Q1 numbers of 2022-23 as it may put PTR in a bad light.

On the other hand, the Q1 2022-23 numbers might look lesser than Q4 2021-22 numbers for states like Gujarat and Maharashtra at the outset. But, the own tax revenue without including Central Government’s devolution has seen a rise.

Data compiled from CAG Monthly Key Indicators

As evident from above, the own tax revenue of Gujarat has registered an increase of 4.88% this quarter than the previous quarter. On the other hand, Tamil Nadu has seen a decrease of 4.92%.

And what is to be noted is that Gujarat has achieved this growth without intoxicating its people with liquor.

It is true that many of the similarly placed states like Maharashtra and Karnataka have registered lower revenues this quarter when compared to the last quarter.

If PTR wants to claim credit for Tamil Nadu showing 50% rise in own tax revenue in Q1, well, many other states have registered higher own tax revenue when compared with Q1 of 2021-22. Maharashtra’s own tax revenue in Q1 grew by 68% and Gujarat’s by 50%. Both these states have shown lesser increase in State Excise Duties compared to Tamil Nadu which means that these states are not pouring alcohol in the mouths of people to earn revenue.

 

So, instead of covering up his dismal performance by dissing his dissidents, the DMK Minister should seriously introspect himself and the work he has done.

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