Tamil Nadu Minister for Finance and Human Resources Palanivel Thiaga Rajan (PTR) has resigned from his post as the party’s IT wing secretary. The minister, who was heading the wing, has given up the post as the finance department is taking up a lot of his time, sources said.
According to a Times of India report, PTR has informed his decision to the party and the leadership has agreed to the same. Mannargudi MLA TRB Raaja has reportedly opted to be the next secretary. However, an official announcement in this regard is yet to be made.
The DMK IT wing was formed in the year 2017, the responsibility of which was given to PTR. Due to his preoccupation with work in the Finance department, GST Council meetings and with the upcoming budget works at hand, the Minister has decided to step down from the party position.
The finance minister had made a strong recommendation for rolling back the decision to increase the GST on textile and apparels from 5 to 12% at the 46th meeting of the GST Council held recently. He said that as the textile industry was a primary job creator in Tamil Nadu, hiking GST may lead to large-scale unemployment in the sector.
In his pre-budget speech ahead of the GST Council meet, PTR stated that dues to the tune of Rs 17,000 crore are pending from the Union government to Tamil Nadu and demanded that the dues be released as the states are already facing huge fiscal stress.
The TN finance minister also pointed out that the Union government has increased its share of cesses and surcharges which has adversely affected the transfer of resources to the states. He also asked the Union government to allow the states to borrow unconditionally within the prescribed limits. Further, in view of the expenditure incurred by states in handling the COVID-19 pandemic, PTR asked for the borrowing limit to be set dynamically at 5% of the GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) for Tamil Nadu.