Release pending dues of Rs 19,591.63 crore: TN to Finance Ministry

Tamil Nadu on Monday requested the finance Ministry to release pending dues of Rs 19,591.63crore, including the Goods and Services Tax compensationclaims and arrears related to the 13th and 14th FinanceCommission grants.

Deputy Chief Minister O Paneerselvam said the grants ofRs 2,577.98 crore as recommended by the 14th FinanceCommission for rural and urban local bodies in the State andthe performance grants recommended by the Commission had alsonot been released so far.

He put forth these requests at the pre-Union budgetmeeting chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman andsenior government officials through video conference from theSecretariat here on Wednesday.

Panneerselvam requested the government to implementcritical projects to overcome the State's water deficit,including the 'Nadanthai Vazhi Cauvery' project envisaged bythe Centre under the 'Namami Gange' scheme to rejuvenate theCauvery river and its tributaries.

''The proposal sent to Government of India for financingunder the National River Conservation Programme may beapproved at the earliest'', he said.

Noting that the 118.9 km phase II of Chennai Metro Railproject, estimated at Rs 61,843 crore was inaugurated recentlyby Home Minister Amit Shah, he requested the government toapprove implementation of phase-II with equal equity shares ofat least 15 per cent each of the Central and state governmentsas was done for Phase 1.

The deputy chief minister requested the Finance Ministryto release dues for the schemes under 'Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan'and 'Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan', among others.

Referring to the ambitious Tamil Nadu Defense IndustrialCorridor project, he said a financial assistance of Rs 5,000crore may be provided to develop critical infrastructure andcommon facilities required for defense and aerospaceindustries in the five nodes of the corridor -- Chennai,Salem, Hosur, Coimbatore and Tiruchirappalli.

A high speed passenger and freight rail corridorconnecting Chennai and Tuticorin must be prioritised as partof the Chennai-Kanyakumari Industrial Corridor, he said.

Stating that the micro, small and medium enterprises werehit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and were struggling withrising prices of raw material like steel, coke, pig iron, castiron, he said the government must urgently step in to bringdown the costs by removing tariff and non-tariff barriers.

''MSMEs are also facing cash flow issues in the GST regimeas they have to remit taxes monthly on accrual basis althoughthe actual recovery of the dues from customers take longer(duration)'', he said.