The Tamil Nadu government has sought additional financial assistance of Rs 25,000 crore from the Centre for various development projects.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, chief minister J Jayalalithaa said, “My government has inherited a very fragile financial system, precariously poised on the brink of deterioration with very unsustainable deficits and enormous debts due to the predecessor DMK government.”
The state was taking steps like increasing VAT rates, excise duty, bus fares and hiking milk prices.
“The process of development, which is languishing has to be galvanised. The revenue buoyancy in the state is also in need of a renaissance. I request you to kindly sanction an additional financial assistance of Rs 25,000 crore for development projects for Tamil Nadu partly as grant and partly as loan,” she said.
She added that supply from the central generating stations to Tamil Nadu had come down by 700 Mw since March 2011 and requested the Prime Minister to look into this issue.
“Earlier request for additional allocation of 1,000 Mw from the central pool due to the unexpected delay in commissioning of the new power projects under the central sector to tide over the present acute power crisis in the state may be considered on priority basis.”
Allocation of kerosene in the Public Distribution System was drastically reduced from June, 2011 onwards. The earlier allocation of 52,806 litre per month was reduced to 44,580 litre per month from June.
The state government has requested that the PDS allotment of kerosene be reverted to the April, 2011 levels and sought a five per cent enhancement in supply.
