The Tamil Nadu government has so far implemented 273 recommendations and observations made by the Dr. C. Rangarajan Committee, constituted to advise the State government on medium-term policy responses to the economic impact of COVID-19, Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister O. Panneerselvam said on Tuesday.
Mr. Panneerselvam said the committee had made 413 recommendations and observations relating to immediate relief and revival measures following the COVID-19 lockdown and sector-specific measures covering agriculture and allied activities, manufacturing including MSME and emerging sectors, construction, real estate, banking and finance, tourism, social sector, inter-State migrant labour and State finances.
“The government acted promptly on the recommendation of the high-level committee of incurring capital expenditure of at least ₹10,000 crore additionally in 2020-21. Additional sanctions, over and above the provisions made in the Budget estimates 2020-21 were granted for capital works — irrigation, construction of buildings, roads and highways, housing, water supply and sanitation — amounting to ₹20,013 crore,” he said.
As a result of these actions, Tamil Nadu is expected to register a positive growth rate of 2.02% at 2011-12 constant prices in 2020-21. This is against an all-India negative growth of 7.7% in 2020-21, Mr. Panneerselvam said.
The strongest performance is of the primary sector at 5.23%, with livestock and fisheries registering even stronger growth, he said.
Mr. Panneerselvam further said growth in the secondary sector at 1.25% and in the services sector at 1.64% were better than expected on account of the pandemic.
