Tamil Nadu revenue receipt growth registered five year low: CAG report

Tamil Nadu revenue receipt growth witnessed five year low for the year ended 31 March 2016 at ₹1.29 lakh crore, a 5.38 per cent growth, according to a report by Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The State registered a revenue growth of 13.31 per cent during 2014-15. The low growth is due to poor growth rate of own tax revenue and grants-in-aid, the report revealed.

The report placed in the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday included performance audits on State Finances, General and Social Sector and local bodies. According to the report the State’s revenue receipt displayed a decreasing trend from 21.39 per cent in 2011-12 to 9.32 per cent during 2013-14 to a five year low of 5.38 per cent in 2015-16.

Of the total expenditure of ₹1.62 lakh crore during 2015-16, revenue expenditure accounted for about 86.86 per cent and almost 76.06 per cent which was incurred on the non-plan component. While the government paid interest at an average of 8.38 per cent on its borrowing for the said fiscal, average return on investments was only 0.61 per cent.

However the State contained the fiscal deficit at 2.69 per cent during 2015-16, which was within the target of 3 per cent of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) envisaged under Tamil Nadu Fiscal Responsibility Act, the report stated.

Chennai Mega City Development Mission, which was launched with an objective to improve basic infrastructure and facilities, did not have enough funding. As opposed to the proposed requirement of ₹9,228 crore, the State sanctioned only ₹2500 crore affecting the progress.

Other findings include performance of public sector undertakings, revenue sector and economic sector. There are 68 working PSUs registering a turnover of ₹99850 crore, which was equal to 8.23 per cent of the State’s GDP. Out of 68 PSUs, 41 earned a profit of ₹811.27 crore and 21 PSUs registered a loss of ₹15,684 crore. Heavy losses were incurred by the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation Limited at ₹12,756 crore and the State Transport Corporation at ₹2600 crore. Till date PSUs had accumulated losses to the tune of ₹80925.82 crore. The accumulated losses were ₹59636 in 2011-12.

On the economy front, many departments like horticulture were found to have inadequate annual planning document and lack proper monitoring resulting in avoidable losses. Co-operative Sugar Mills continued to suffer losses of ₹1095 crore between 2013-14 and 2015-16 due to cost of production coupled with interest burden of ₹963.73 crore. Measures to make them financially sustainable were largely unimplemented by the State making them financially weak.

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