The Tamil Nadu government plans to borrow ₹37,000 crore in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2023-24, according to the indicative calendar of market borrowings released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
To bridge the income-expenditure gap (fiscal deficit), the State borrows from the market through the issue of bonds known as State Development Loans (SDLs), which form a major part of its total outstanding liabilities. So far in fiscal 2023-24 (till December), the State government has raised ₹76,000 crore, according to the data available on the RBI website.
It plans to borrow ₹1,43,197.93 crore during 2023-24 and repay ₹51,331.79 crore, according to the State Budget.
In 2022-23 and 2021-22, the Tamil Nadu government’s gross market borrowings remained at the same level, at ₹87,000 crore. The State has remained the top borrower in the recent years. SDLs form a major component of Tamil Nadu’s outstanding liability.
As per the RBI report State Finances: A Study of Budgets of 2023-24, SDLs account for about ₹6 lakh crore of the State’s total outstanding liabilities of about ₹8.34 lakh crore, estimated at the end of March 2024. At the end of March 2023, outstanding SDLs were about ₹5.18 lakh crore.
So far in fiscal 2023-24 (till November), Tamil Nadu’s total tax revenue stood at about ₹1.27 lakh crore, which is 57.27% of the budgeted estimates, according to the provisional figures from the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG).
The State’s Own Tax Revenue (SOTR), which accounts for 78.9% of Tamil Nadu’s tax revenue, stood at ₹97,282.54 crore.
Tamil Nadu has estimated its SOTR to be about ₹1.81 lakh crore for 2023-24. It is likely to be impacted by the recent floods in Chennai and the southern districts.
The State’s revenue deficit (when revenue expenditure exceeds revenue receipts) stood at ₹24,028.74 crore till November in fiscal 2023-24, while the fiscal deficit was ₹53,125.71 crore.
Tamil Nadu has estimated a revenue deficit of ₹37,540 crore for 2023-24, factoring in the expenditure on account of the Kalaignar Mahalir Urimai Thittam.
The government will attempt to manage the revenue deficit at the budgeted level of ₹37,540 crore in 2023-24 and strive to stay within the fiscal deficit target of 3.25% of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and manage the debt to GSDP ratio within the prescribed limits through revenue augmentation and effective fiscal consolidation, Finance Minister Thangam Thennarasu had said in the Assembly in October.
