State’s requests for additional finances find no mention

While the Union interim Budget for 2019-2020 focused on small farmers and tax relief for a certain section of middle-class income earners, some specific requests made by the Tamil Nadu government such as special sanction for its coastal districts did not find mention.

Ahead of the Budget, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi Palaniswami had sought for speedy release of funds and increased allocation for Centrally sponsored schemes and GST dues. The State had said grants-in-aid to the tune of ₹10,883.84 crore are yet to be released by the Union Government.

The Chief Minister had sought for special sanction of ₹6,000 crore for reconstruction of houses for the poor and ₹7,077 crore for conversion of High Tension and Low Tension overhead lines in the coastal districts.

He also requested a ₹625 crore sanction under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY) scheme as a special case to farmers who have lost the trees/crops as a result of Cyclone Gaja.

Mr. Palaniswami sought an increase in the share of the post-matric scholarship between the Centre and State to 60:40.

According to the Budget estimates for 2019-20, the transfer to States in terms of grants, loans and others was pegged at ₹1.66 lakh crore.

Previous estimate

The revised Budget estimates for 2018-19 estimated the transfer to States to be about ₹1.41 lakh crore. The finer details of how much Tamil Nadu gets will emerge when the State presents its Budget on February 8.

Tamil Nadu would get ₹30,638.87 crore as net proceeds from Union Taxes and Duties according to the revised Budget estimate for 2018-19.

The estimates during last year’s Budget was ₹31,707.09 crore.

For 2019-20, the State’s share from Union Taxes and Duties is estimated to be ₹33,978.47 crore. Its share from Central GST is pegged to be ₹10,283.57 crore.