Chennai, Dec 7 (IANS): Tamil Nadu Finance Minister P.T.R. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Wednesday said that the state would increase its capital expenditure threefold in the next three years.

Addressing a conclave of the Confederation of Indian Industries, Tamil Nadu, he said that that in earlier days, the capital expenditure of the state was 3-4 per cent of the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) every year but it continuously dropped from 2014 and even dipped to 1 per cent of the GSDP during Covid-19 period.

Thiaga Rajan said that the capital expenditure of the state touched 1.5 per cent of the GSDP during 2021-22 and is expected to touch 2.5 to 3 per cent during the present financial year.

He said that the revenue deficit of the state was brought down by Rs 16,000 crore in 2021-22 and hence the fiscal deficit is better than the revised estimates.

The Finance Minister said that the state was on the path of repeating the good performance of the previous financial year if the economic parameters are the same.

He called upon the industry to support the public-private partnership to overcome the deteriorating fiscal position which led to the capital expenditure going down.

In his address, he also called upon the banks to use technology to improve the credit assessment of the clients and to increase the client base so that more industries could be covered.

Thiaga Rajan said that he had spoken in the State Level Bankers Committee meeting on the importance of increasing the client base of the banks instead of the volume of business done and wanted the banks to cover more industries.

He also said that the banks in Tamil Nadu have done well in achieving their credit disbursement targets.