The ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam on Thursday criticised the “step-motherly treatment” meted out to Tamil Nadu in the Union budget 2024-25 and announced staging state-wide agitation against the Centre over the issue.
The party announced that “massive agitation” will be held in all district headquarters on Saturday against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government which “has meted out a step-motherly treatment” to Tamil Nadu in the union budget.
A party statement said Chief Minister MK Stalin’s plea for funds for Metro Rail and towards flood relief has been “completely ignored, but some states have been given generous disaster relief funds.”
A country’s budget should ensure equitable development by allocating funds accordingly to all states and it should be the government’s “policy announcement” aimed at ensuring the well-being of every citizen, it said.
However, how far the Union Budget 2024-25 caters to the well-being of every citizen of the country is a matter of perspective.
The allegations surfaced suggest that since in the southern state of Tamil Nadu Bharatiya Janata Party drew a blank in the Lok Sabha polls 2024, the state has not been mentioned in the Budget.
But if one tries to see the larger picture then the state can benefit from the budget allocations in numerous ways.
While it appears that the Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman did not ‘mention’ the name of Tamil Nadu in the budget, it has certainly not been 'unnoticed' in the budget.
Tamil Nadu is likely to benefit from some of the measures of the budget allocations in terms of business. But how much of this will be passed to the customers is still a bone of contention.
Also, this can be possible only if promises made on paper see the light of day.
Other side of the picture
Agrarian Sector
Budget’s push to enhance productivity in the agriculture sector can be utilised by the farmers in Tamil Nadu who can reap its benefits. For instance, the launch of over 100 new high-yielding and climate-resilient varieties of nearly 35 field and horticulture crops, such as pulses and oilseeds and promotion of natural farming.
Setting up digital public infrastructure for agriculture helps too. After all, the digitisation of agri records will help farmers and land records will also help them get loans.
Data suggest that in financial year 2023, the gross domestic product from agriculture sector of Tamil Nadu amounted to over1.2 trillion Indian rupees. This was a significant increase from about one trillion rupees in the previous year.
MSMES (Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises)
Tamil Nadu is, reportedly, home for the second largest number of such units in the country. The range of measures for MSMEs might help.
The southern state, reportedly, has the third-largest number of MSMEs in the country with a share of 8 per cent and around five million enterprises.
Additionally, the employment-linked incentive scheme for hiring freshers will encourage MSMEs to recruit young graduates.
With MSMEs facing shortage of employees and financial constraints, the allocation will give a a boost to firms hiring fresh graduates.
Export of Marine Products
A coastal state like Tamil Nadu will get a boost in terms of financial support for setting up breeding centres for shrimps and other seafoods. Also, reduction in basic customs duty on certain broodstock, polychaete worms, shrimp and fish feed to 5 per cent can be of help.
India achieved an all-time high exports of seafood both in terms of volume and value (both US$ and Rupee) by shipping 17,35,286 MT of seafood worth Rs. 63,969.14 crore (US$ 8.09 billion) during FY 2022-23 despite the several challenges in its major export markets like the United States.
It has been learnt that in 2023-24, Tamil Nadu exported marine products worth $484 million.
Manufacture of Electronic Products
The budget has reduced basic custom duty for mobile phones, chargers and printed circuit board assembly of mobile phones.
It also removed BCD for specified goods used for manufacturing connectors and resistors and duty on critical minerals including copper, lithium and silicon.
This is expected to increase localisation of the electronics supply chain.
Tamil Nadu is known to have a major share in the country’s iPhones manufacturing.
The Tamil Nadu Electronics Hardware Manufacturing Policy aims to increasing Tamil Nadu’s electronics industry output to USD 100 billion by 2025. And contribute 25 per cent of India’s total electronic exports to the world by 2025.
Textiles & Leather
BCD for spandex yarn raw material has been cut from 7.5 per cent to 5 per cent. Tanned leather, wet white leather, crust leather and finished leather included under the duty-free scheme for leather product exporters.
Export duty on wet blue and crust leather was also cut.
Textile exporters are of the view that reduction of customs duty and credit guarantee for purchase of machinery for MSMEs will help the textile industry.
The DMK quoted the National Import-Export Record for Yearly Analysis of Trade (NIRYAT), which was published recently and said that Tamil Nadu accounted for 22.58 per cent of the textiles exported from the country.
According to NIRYAT, Tamil Nadu also secured the first place in the export of leather goods, accounting for 43.20 per cent of the national tally.
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