Budget session of Tamil Nadu Assembly from August 13 to September 21

The budget session of the Tamil Nadu Assembly which will begin on August 13 with the presentation of the revised Budget by Finance Minister P T R Palanivel Thiaga Rajan will conclude on September 21.

The duration of the session was decided at the Business Advisory Council meeting chaired by Speaker M Appavu on Tuesday. Thiaga Rajan will present the state’s first e-budget at 10 am on Friday at the Kalaivanar Arangam here.

Agriculture Minister M R K Panneerselvam will present the Agriculture Budget, the first for the state, on Saturday following which the debate on General and Agriculture Budget will begin from August 16. The reply will be given on August 19.

From August 23, demands for grants for each department will be discussed and passed in the House. While Water Resources is the first department whose demands for grants will be taken up, Public Department and Special Projects Implementation will be the last to be taken up.

Thiaga Rajan had on August 9 released a 112-page White Report on Tamil Nadu’s finances blaming “lack of political will and administrative skill” for the state getting into a “vicious cycle” of increasing debts.

In a departure from the tradition, Thiaga Rajan is believed to have written a major part of the speech that he will deliver while presenting the Budget, raising expectations about the tabling of the financial document. It is believed that the Budget speech will have announcements regarding some of the DMK’s poll promises like Rs 1,000 as “rightful money” for women head of households.

Presentation of an e-budget will be the first step towards achieving a ‘paperless’ Tamil Nadu Assembly. The legislators will have to scroll through the PDF document on their screens as Thiaga Rajan flips through the pages reading out his maiden Budget speech.