Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu on Friday reiterated the State government’s assertion that Tamil Nadu was losing out on tax revenues and fiscal autonomy, and countered the remarks made to the contrary by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman a day earlier.
Addressing journalists in Chennai, Mr. Thennarasu said the State received a total of ₹4.75 lakh crore from the Union government between 2014-15 and 2022-23, which included ₹2.46 lakh crore as “tax devolutions from the Central taxes” and ₹2.28 lakh crore as grants-in-aid and assistance.
In contrast, Ms. Sitharaman said the Union government had given ₹6.97 lakh crore in tax devolutions, grants-in-aid and special assistance. While agreeing with Ms. Sitharaman that ₹6.23 lakh crore in direct tax revenues was collected from Tamil Nadu between 2014-15 and 2022-23, Mr. Thennarasu said the Union government had not shared any data with the State on the indirect taxes collected from Tamil Nadu.
Talking about indirect taxes, Ms. Sitharaman said the Goods and Services Tax (GST) collection from Tamil Nadu in 2022-23 alone was ₹36,353.12 crore as State GST (SGST), ₹32,611.92 crore as Integrated GST (IGST), and ₹27,360.95 crore as Central GST (CGST). Of these, she said 100% of SGST, around 50% IGST, and 41%-42% of CGST were returned to Tamil Nadu.
Mr. Thennarasu, however, reiterated the State government’s argument that it received only 29 paise for every rupee it gave to the Centre. He said that while Tamil Nadu accounted for 6.124% of the country’s population, its share from the total divisible pool of Central taxes had decreased from 5.305% under the 12th Finance Commission to 4.079% under the 15th Finance Commission.
On Ms. Sitharaman’s remarks about the Centre’s contributions towards Metro Rail in Chennai, he said the Union government was yet to release its contribution for Phase 2 of the project, even though it had been approved by the Public Investment Board.
He said the Union government had given only ₹3,273 crore to Tamil Nadu for Metro Rail, while States like Maharashtra (₹28,494 crore) and Karnataka (₹17,532 crore) had received much more.
He pointed out that even in Centrally sponsored housing schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)-Rural and PMAY-Urban, the State government’s contribution was far higher than that of the Centre.
Contending that the State government had rolled out various public welfare schemes despite severe financial constraints, he said it was unfortunate that the Centre did not try to support the State financially. He reiterated Tamil Nadu’s appeal to the Union government to release flood relief funds for affected areas.
