Chennai, Jun 16 (PTI) Tamil Nadu’s fiscal management in the last five years has been “sobering” and pointed to a “structural deterioration in the state’s finances”, Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay said on Tuesday.
If left unaddressed, it would compound with each passing year and fall hardest on the generation least able to bear it, he said in his preface to the white paper released by State Finance Minister N Marie Wilson at the Secretariat here today.
The white paper examined the five-year post-Covid window from 2021-22 to 2025-26 – the period during which the conditions for fiscal consolidation existed, the state’s peers used the recovery to restore their fiscal positions, and during which Tamil Nadu’s own choices, and deferred choices, shaped
the position it now occupied.
It also looked ahead to the immediate challenges of the financial year 2026-27.
“The findings are sobering. They point to a structural deterioration in the state’s finances that, if left unaddressed, will compound with each passing year and will fall hardest on the generation least able to bear it,” the Chief Minister said.
This was not a counsel of despair. Tamil Nadu possessed economic strength, institutional depth, and human resources to restore its fiscal health. “What is required is an accurate understanding of the problem and the resolve to address it through disciplined revenue mobilisation, prudent expenditure management, and clean, corruption-free governance,” he said.
The first step in correcting any problem was to measure it honestly and to set it out in full before those to whom the government is ultimately accountable – the people of Tamil Nadu, Vijay said.
The white paper was possible with the guidance provided by Wilson, the CM said and also lauded Finance Secretary M A Siddique, for his leadership and other officials in bringing out this pivotal white paper in such a short span of time.
Shortly after he was sworn in as Chief Minister on May 10, Vijay, who piloted his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam to victory in the April Assembly election, announced to bring out a white paper on the state’s fiscal health during the previous (DMK regime) five years. PTI JSP JSP ROH
