The Tamil Nadu government today clarified that the lapses reported by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on performance of public sector undertakings, state’s finance and forest cover measures are of the financial year 2010-11, during the tenure of the previous government and the current government is taking actions to set the issues right.
The CAG's report was tabled on May 16, 2012 in the state Legislative Assembly.
In a press statement by Minister for Finance, O Panneerselvam said, “All these lapses have occurred during the tenure of the previous DMK Government.” “The shortcomings pointed out in the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General pertain to the period 2010-2011 and have been set right by this Government,” he said.
The CAG report for the period ending March 31, 2011, stated that the State Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) in Tamil Nadu in aggregate suffered severe losses, especially, 23 PSUs had incurred heavy losses. In the financial year 2010-2011, the Tamil Nadu Electricity Board had incurred losses of Rs.10,294.64 crores. It has also been pointed out that the subsidy payment for free supply of electricity for agriculture at Rs 250 per horse power is very low.
The AIADMK Government, which assumed charge in May 2011, has increased the subsidy payment for free supply of electricity for agriculture from Rs 250 per horse power per year to Rs1,750. It has also taken a number of steps to reduce the losses in other PSUs, especially the losses suffered by the State Transport Undertakings.
According to the minister's statement, the CAG report said that in 2010-11, the revenue deficit was Rs 2,728 crore. In 2009-2010 the fiscal deficit was Rs11,807 crore which increased to Rs16,646 crore in 2010-2011 and the state’s debt burden exceeded Rs1 lakh crore.
The minister stated that under the AIADMK government, in 2011-2012, “the revenue deficit has been completely eliminated and revenue surplus of Rs.536.54 crores has been reached.” The fiscal deficit has been controlled at Rs 16,597 crore and net borrowing was curtailed to Rs12,874 crore, during 2011-12, he added.
Besides, the issues including the total number of persons in family cards distributed exceeding the population of the State, alleged loss of 1,300 lives due to short-comings in emergency medical services provided in Government hospitals and the dwindling forest cover are during the period of DMK government.
The state government is taking measures to address the issues, he said.
“The Government is taking serious steps and also monitoring the eviction of encroachments and addition to the forest areas by way of forest settlement,” he said.