Chennai: Reiterating the commitment of the state govt in fulfilling the poll promises made by TVK, finance minister Marie Wilson said on Monday that 125 of the 436 promises announced by his party have been included in the state budget presented by him a few days ago.“We (TVK) formed the govt amid severe financial constraints, with the revenue deficit rising from Rs 46,538 crore in 2021-22 to Rs 78,324 crore in 2025-26, while the state’s own tax revenue declined from 5.93% to 5.45% of GSDP. Despite these constraints, we have undertaken several reforms and have included 125 of our 436 poll promises in this year’s budget,” Marie Wilson said in the assembly in response to criticism by opposition MLAs that the state budget lacked major announcements.The finance minister also defended state’s borrowings. He said though TVK govt borrowed more money than the previous DMk regime during the first quarter of 2026-27, the borrowing was lower when calculated as a percentage of GSDP. “During the first quarter of the current financial year, the state borrowed Rs 20,881 crore, compared with Rs 19,337 crore during the corresponding period last year. However, this year’s borrowing accounted for 0.51% of GSDP, against 0.54% last year,” Marie Wilson said.Responding to a query by Kilpennathur MLA S Ramachandran (AIADMK) on Tamil Nadu Assured Pension Scheme (TAPS) announced by the previous DMK got, Marie Wilson said TVK govt will implement TAPS if Union govt permits state govt to get more borrowings. Countering Wilson, former minister E V Velu said the DMK govt had allocated Rs 11,000 crore for TAPS in the interim budget, but the allocation was missing in the revised budget presented by TVK govt. He said that the scheme would now require Rs 3,000 crore more than what the DMK govt had earmarked in its budget.
