NE NEWS SERVICE
CHENNAI, JAN 18
Tamil Nadu government on Monday requested the Finance Ministry to release pending dues of Rs 19,591.63 crore, including the Goods and Services Tax compensation claims and arrears related to the 13th and 14th Finance Commission grants.
Union Finance Minister Smt. @nsitharaman holds Pre-Budget meeting for upcoming Budget 2021-22 with Finance Ministers of all States and Union Territories (with legislature) through video conferencing in New Delhi today. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/wD3xXQcxVx
— Ministry of Finance (@FinMinIndia) January 18, 2021
Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam said the grants of Rs 2,577.98 crore as recommended by the 14th Finance Commission for rural and urban local bodies in the State and the performance grants recommended by the Commission had also not been released so far.
He put forth these requests at the pre-Union budget meeting chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and senior government officials through video conference from the Secretariat here on Wednesday. Panneerselvam requested the government to implement critical projects to overcome the State’s water deficit, including the ”Nadanthai Vazhi Cauvery” project envisaged by the Centre under the ”Namami Ganges” scheme to rejuvenate the Cauvery river and its tributaries. “The proposal sent to Government of India for financing under the National River Conservation Programme may be approved at the earliest”, he said.
Noting that the 118.9 km phase II of Chennai Metro Rail project, estimated at Rs 61,843 crore was inaugurated recently by Home Minister Amit Shah, he requested the government to approve implementation of phase-II with equal equity shares of at least 15 per cent each of the Central and state governments as was done for Phase 1.
The deputy chief minister requested the Finance Ministry to release dues for the schemes under ”Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan” and ”Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan”, among others.
Referring to the ambitious Tamil Nadu Defense Industrial Corridor project, he said a financial assistance of Rs 5,000 crore may be provided to develop critical infrastructure and common facilities required for defense and aerospace industries in the five nodes of the corridor – Chennai, Salem, Hosur, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli.
A high speed passenger and freight rail corridor connecting Chennai and Tuticorin must be prioritised as part of the Chennai-Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor, he said.
Stating that the micro, small and medium enterprises were hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and were struggling with rising prices of raw material like steel, coke, pig iron, cast iron, he said the government must urgently step in to bring down the costs by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers. “MSMEs are also facing cash flow issues in the GST regime as they have to remit taxes monthly on accrual basis although the actual recovery of the dues from customers take longer (duration)”, he said.
