Tamil Nadu Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan on Sunday said if State BJP president K. Annamalai felt what he had stated in the Budget was wrong the latter was either ignorant or should approach the courts accusing him [Minister] of uttering falsehoods.
Mr. Thiaga Rajan hit out at Mr. Annamalai after the BJP leader at a protest meeting against the Budget accused the Minister of lying about the GST dues pending to the State.
Mr. Annamalai said the Finance Minister had been repeating that the Centre owed Tamil Nadu GST dues of ₹16,500 crore but had stated in the Budget that the final pending amount of ₹6,500 had been received by the State.
Asking Mr. Annamalai to read the Budget documents properly, Mr. Thiaga Rajan said, “I am not in the business of responding to ill-informed statements made by unqualified people on public platforms.”
The Minister told The Hindu he had an excellent working relationship with the Union Finance minister and Union Finance Secretary, marked with cordiality and mutual respect.
“I had visited Delhi voluntarily once after the Union Budget to reconcile accounts with the Finance Secretary and the Finance Minister. At the time, we reached a consensus on who owes what. Altogether, the total sum was over ₹28,000 crores that is due to Tamil Nadu under various categories,” Mr. Thiaga Rajan said.
