Fixing TN’s financial position & increasing GDP are priorities of govt: Finance minister Palanivel Thiagarajan

Fixing Tamil Nadu’s financial position in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing its contribution to the country’s GDP and reducing the interest payment of the state are the priorities of the DMK government, Finance minister Palanivel Thiagarajan has said. The government would adopt a more inclusive approach in taking all policy decisions to achieve this, he said here on Saturday, addressing members of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Tamil Nadu unit.

“Tamil Nadu has to take back its first position in the growth rate at country level, for which the government will initiate more pro-active measures”, he said.

Safeguarding Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and improving Ease of Doing Business (EoDB) would attract more investment and generate employment opportunities in the state, he said.

“Fixing the financial position of the State, increasing the states contribution to the National GDP from 10 per cent to 14-15 per cent and reducing the interest payment of the state are the priorities of the present government,” he said.

Extending his gratitude to the Tamil Nadu government for taking ‘proactive policies’, CII Southern Region chairman C K Ranganathan said the state has a vibrant ecosystem to attract investment in the banking and financial services sector.

He urged the Minister to revive the ‘

City’ and suggested that the government help in restructuring MSME loans.

Some other suggestions included reduction of 50 per cent in road tax to give a boost to automobile sales, digitisation of vehicle registration to ensure transparency and an exclusive package for investors to set up units in Tier II and III cities.

The members also urged the minister to set up a petrochemical industrial park in the state and take measures on up-skilling and re-skilling the youth.

CII Tamil Nadu chairman S Chandrakumar, Thiagarajar Mills chairman, T Kannan, CII-SR past chairman S Mahalingam,

, chairman Arun Murugappan, Sundram Fasteners MD Arathi Krishna, Zoho Corporation founder-CEO, Sridhar Vembu were among those present during the interaction.