TN provides for free cattle, laptops in budget

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Finance Minister O. Pannerselvam Thursday presented the state budget for this fiscal, setting aside Rs.8,900 crore for freebies such as laptops, fans, mixers, cattle, rice and gold, as promised in the run-up to the April elections.

The budget, which for the first time has crossed the size of Rs.100,000 crore, has also proposed to create a revenue surplus, while promising to contain fiscal deficit at 2.9 percent of the its gross state domestic product (GDP).

The state finance minister said allocations have been made to distribute 912,000 laptops to students and 60,000 solar powered green houses during the current fiscal, apart from handing over fans, mixers, grinders and even cattle to the needy.

These doles are over and above provisions for opening fixed deposits for poor students, food subsidy, maternity assistance and gold for poor girls to buy "mangalsutras" at the time of their marriage.

"We have also eliminated the previous year's revenue deficit of Rs.2,720 crore and even generated marginal revenue surplus of Rs.173.87 crore in this budget," Pannerselvam told the state assembly.