Chennai Mar 24 PTI Tamil Nadu is not a poor state but a developed one with over 90 per cent of the families owning cell phones and more than 75 per cent of the families living in their own houses said Finance and Human Resources Management Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Thursday Of the 75 per cent families owning houses 90 per cent lived in rural areas while 60 per cent were in the cities What is surprising is that 14 per cent among them say they live in houses either built for them or in accommodation provided by the government he said while winding up the debate on budget 2022-23 which he presented in the Assembly House on March 18 The Minister claimed that 66 per cent of households have two-wheelers constituting to over 26 crore two-wheeler population in the state More than 50 per cent of the families have fridges Thiaga Rajan said and asserted that Tamil Nadu is not a poor state but a developed one Quoting statistics he said 52 per cent of the people including a large number of women are not in workforce Our aim is to make them employable Also we have an ageing population with 15 percent of the elders living in rural areas while 10 percent live in urban areas he said These elderly citizens are in dire need of medical and financial assistance and they desire for companionship As Chief Minister M K Stalin has pointed out we are confronted with the problem of regional disparity in many sectors Not all eligible elders get the same amount of pension and destitute among them forfeit the old-age pension sum as they could not fill the forms or no one is around to help them the Minister said He claimed that the state was facing a biggest challenge through the GST wherein its financial autonomy has been taken away Training his guns on the opposition AIADMK the Minister accused that party of drastically weakening Tamil Nadus fiscal position due to administrative incompetence The situation worsened post the death of late chief minister J Jayalalithaa he alleged and claimed that even before the pandemic the then AIADMK government had projected a state revenue of only Rs 800 crore The administrative incompetence and wrong policies had weakened the fiscal position of the state further AIADMKs deputy leader O Panneerselvam who criticised our Budget should have been here for the reply Thiaga Rajan said He claimed a fiscal path is being laid out by the DMK government to reduce the revenue deficit in a phased manner The Finance Minister informed that a detailed project report DPR for the phase I of the Metrorail project for Coimbatore has been readied and a public hearing would be held soon The feasibility study for the Metrorail project for Madurai is apace and we hope to get the report by May Thiaga Rajan added PTI JSP SS SS

Chennai Mar 18 PTI Welfare measures announced in the Tamil Nadu Budget presented by the Finance Minister of the State Palanivel Thiaga Rajan would help in its overall economic development an official of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations southern region FIEO-SR said on Friday FIEO-SR president A Sakthivel said the budget was futuristic with long-term vision of Chief Minister M K Stalin to reach USD 100 billion by 2030 The budget will help in creating a large number of job opportunities by attracting new investments and encouraging existing entrepreneurs to do more he said in a press release He congratulated the Chief Minister for steering the State through the path of progress irrespective of the challenges posed by Covid-19 pandemic The Naan Mudhalvan Scheme envisaged by the Chief Minister will help industry to get right kind of talent pool for enabling industries to absorb the talents he said The proposed policy to strengthen the leather and footwear sector would also generate employment opportunities besides boosting exports he said While presenting the budget Rajan said a new footwear and leather industry development policy would be released to promote these employment-intensive sectors PTI VIJ NVG NVG

Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], March 18 (ANI): Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan presented the state Budget for 2022-23 and highlighted that the revenue deficit of the state has come down for the first time in eight years.

Chennai Sep 30 PTI A verbal duel broke out between Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan and security personnel at the airport here on Thursday over carrying laptops When Thiaga Rajan gave his bag for scanning to security staff at the domestic terminal they found that it had two laptops and allegedly questioned him for not disclosing that the bag has two laptops airport sources said The Minister apparently irked asked security personnel if two laptops cannot be carried at the same time They replied that in case of electronic devices and gadgets these should be given to them separately for scanning purpose Officials intervened and later Thiaga Rajan moved on with his laptops to board a flight to Tuticorin For a while the argument between them caused a flutter at the airport PTI COR VGN SS SS