Chennai: Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan has urged Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to provide the Income Tax Department and Provident Fund data to select eligible beneficiaries to implement the women’s entitlement scheme mentioned in the DMK election manifesto.
Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan left for New Delhi the day before yesterday to request the central government funds to be provided to Tamil Nadu. The day before yesterday, he met various officials of the finance department and inquired about the current status of the files requesting the release of funds requested by the Tamil Nadu government.
Palanivel Thiagarajan met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at her office in the Parliament complex yesterday with the details. He later told reporters:
Union Cabinet approval to obtain underlying debt securities from JICA etc. for Chennai Metro Rail 2nd Project. There are pending files for approval. Meanwhile, we started the project last year by investing the state’s own funds as a state project. They asked for some explanation to give approval. We have given it. He has promised that the approval will be given within this month.
3,500 crore release
The central government had announced an interest-free loan of Rs 1 lakh crore for 50 years to the state governments. Yesterday, the central government has released Rs.3,500 crore in the environment where many departments of the Tamil Nadu government had applied for funds in the scheme. OFC has provided Rs.184 crore for cable project and Rs.3 thousand 263 crore for rural highway projects.
We have already insisted that the Income Tax Department and Provident Fund Institutions provide data to implement the Women’s Entitlement Scheme. Not yet given. But they have provided income tax data to Karnataka state government. We insisted that the same should be given to Tamil Nadu.
It was announced several years ago that Nipper was coming to Madurai. I insisted on bringing it. He said that the planned period is over. Later, when AIIMS hospital is coming up in Madurai, I have informed that it would be better if ‘Naimer’ company is started in Madurai.
Instead of waiting for the GST Appellate Tribunal report etc., I have insisted that the GST Council meeting which should be held once in 3 months should be held in Madurai. This was said by the minister.
Eligible beneficiary can be selected
When asked about the Tamil Nadu Finance Minister’s request for ID and EPFO data from the Union Finance Minister, State Development Policy Committee Vice-Chairman Jayaranjan said,
“There is no data to select an eligible beneficiary for a scheme in Tamil Nadu. Now with the advancement of technology, better computers and software have come. With it, a person’s last 10 years of income tax return filing details will be available.
Also provident fund data can be used to know the monthly salary of a person. Through that we can know whether she is eligible for the government scheme including women’s rights amount. Also, based on the data, women’s entitlements can be avoided for families with higher incomes. With that data we can select the eligible beneficiary,” he said.