TN interim budget pegs economic growth at 10%

CHENNAI: With Tamil Nadu set for assembly elections in May, the DMK government on Saturday presented the interim budget for the next fiscal, in which it pegged the overall revenue deficit for the current financial year at Rs 3,129 crore. The high deficit was attributed to the implementation of welfare schemes and recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.
The interim budget estimated a revenue surplus of Rs 439 crore in 2011-12 and claimed that the state had recorded robust economic growth due to various development programmes. Though revenue deficit had risen during the fiscal, the gross state domestic product (GSDP) showed a growth of 8.9% in 2009-10 and is expected to be more than 10% in 2010-11, when the national average is just 8.5%.
Tabling the interim budget in the assembly, finance minister K Anbazhagan said due to the GSDP growth, the per capita income of people in the state had increased from Rs 39,692 in 2005-2006 to Rs 69,377 crore in 2009-10.
Finance secretary K Shanmugam said that during 2011-12, revenue expenditure was estimated at Rs 78,443 crore, a growth of 4.5% over the revised estimates for 2010-2011.