PMK president Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss on Monday said that the Tamil Nadu Government’s budget for 2024-25 shows that the State’s economy is in a free fall and urged the government to find ways to increase non-tax revenues, production and reduce spending to arrest this economic trend.
In a statement, he criticised the DMK government by pointing out that the present government, which came to power in 2021, has taken debts to the tune of Rs. 3,76,700.81 crore. “When DMK came to power, the debt accrued by the State government until then, was Rs.4,56,660.99 crore. But, between 2021-25, debt taken by DMK government is Rs. 3,76, 700.81 crore. This would mean that, since India became independent and in the last 70 years, present DMK government has taken 82.50% of the total debt of Tamil Nadu. Every person in Tamil Nadu has Rs. 1.20 lakh as debt and a family of 5 will have debt of around Rs. 6 lakh,” he said.
Dr. Anbumani said that State government pays Rs. 63, 722 crore as interest alone, which means that Rs. 175 crore is being paid as interest every day. “If we save interest on two days, we can build a medical college. The Gross State Domestic Product was estimated to be Rs. 32,00,928 crore but it has reduced to Rs. 31,55,000 crore. This means that the economy has declined,” he said.
