Presenting his first budget in the State Assembly after both the warring AIADMK factions merged in August last year, Mr Panneerselvam said the total revenue receipts, including Central transfers, were estimated at Rs 1,76,251 crore during 2018-19 and the state's own tax revenue was estimated to be at Rs 98,693 crore.

"The state's own tax revenue is estimated to increase to Rs 1,12,616 crore in the budget estimates for 2018-19", he said, adding, the revenue expenditure for the year was estimated to be Rs 1,93,742 crore, a growth of 11.22 per cent over the revised estimates of 2017-18.

The revenue deficit was expected to be Rs 17,491 crore and the fiscal deficit at Rs 44,481 crore, he said.

Mr Panneerselvam said the fiscal deficit to GSDP ratio was estimated at 2.79 per cent, which was well below the three per cent fiscal norm.

While sticking to the target of lowering the fiscal deficit from 4.14 per cent of the GSDP in 2016-17 to 2.82 per cent in 2017-18 due to buoyancy in revenue collection after implementation of the GST regime, he said the government did not meet its revenue target and revised it downwards for the year 2017-18 due to less revenue from liquor.

"There is a significant fall in the growth of the state's own tax revenue in 2017-18 due to fall in commercial tax and state excise which have negatively impacted the revenue receipts," he said.

The government estimates its own tax revenue to be Rs 1.12 lakh crore in 2018-19 as against Rs 98,693 crore in 207-18.

The government, which had initially opposed the implementation of the GST, estimates the revenue from GST alone to be Rs 86,859 crore, Mr Panneerselvam said and added that the state has received Rs 632 crore as GST compensation from the Centre during the period July 2017 and February 2018.

Exuding confidence of the economy picking up in the next financial year, he said "the economy is slowly picking up which is evident from the GSDP growth rate in real terms at 8.03 per cent in 2017-18, from 4.85 per cent in 2012-13, despite the temporary setbacks in between."

The government's total debt is expected to be Rs 3.55 lakh crore at the end of next financial year which was 22.29 per cent of the GSDP against the debt-GSDP norm of 25 per cent.

While providing Rs 786 crore for State Disaster Response Fund for the year 2018-19, he also announced a comprehensive flood management plan for south and north Chennai to mitigate flood problems and sought a financial assistance of Rs 2055.67 crore from the Centre.

Mr Panneerselvam also said the state government proposes to increase the CM's constabulary medals from 1,500 to 3,000

 

The subsidy earmarked for 2018-19 budget estimates is Rs 75,722.76 crore, whereas the revised estimate for 2017-18 was Rs 70,662.74 crore.

The trends in expenditure were steady except for the hike in salaries and pensions following the implementation of the Seventh Pay Commission recommendations.