Tamil Nadu’s former Finance Minister and DMK leader Thangam Thennarasu has challenged the TVK government’s narrative that a 21 per cent decline in bond borrowing during the first half of the current fiscal year represents a major financial achievement. According to The Hindu BusinessLine, Thennarasu argued on Tuesday that the reduced debt burden is not the result of improved fiscal discipline, but rather a consequence of stalled development works and withheld contractor payments.
In a post on the social media platform X, Thennarasu questioned the underlying economic realities behind the figures. He noted that the TVK administration has not fully disclosed how its debt requirements decreased. The former minister demanded a detailed breakdown of capital expenditure incurred between April and September, specifically asking how much of the total budgetary allocation was actually spent on new infrastructure initiatives. He also sought clarity on the total outstanding amount for ongoing projects that were initiated during the previous DMK regime.
Thennarasu contrasted the current situation with the 2025–26 budget, where the DMK government allocated 57,231 crore rupees for capital expenditures. He cited provisional monthly accounts from the Comptroller and Auditor General, which indicated that 13,002.22 crore rupees were effectively spent on key infrastructure projects, including the Metro Rail, between April and September 2025. He suggested that the current government is artificially inflating cash reserves to borrow less by delaying works and keeping pending dues unpaid.
The former finance minister also highlighted a significant shift in the state’s fiscal roadmap. While the TVK government boasts of reduced borrowing in the first half, it has planned to raise 48,000 crore rupees in the October–December quarter alone. This amount is more than double the 23,500 crore rupees raised in the preceding quarter, a rear-loaded borrowing strategy that Thennarasu described as a contradiction to their claims of financial prudence. He added that tens of thousands of crores worth of tenders have been cancelled, leaving roads in poor condition and construction projects incomplete.