Women, youth, and government employees emerged as major beneficiaries as the Tamil Nadu government presented its Budget 2025 on Friday, with just a year to go for elections. The state finance minister Thangam Thennarasu waited until the end of the almost 2.5 hour-long budget to make three major announcements benefitting a large section of the state population.
- Also read: Tamil Nadu Budget 2025 Highlights
The FM, in his budget speech, said that government employees and teachers have been consistently demanding the reinstatement of the Earned Leave (EL) Surrender system, which was suspended in the aftermath of Covid-19. The budget restored this system with effect from April 1, 2026. This allows Government employees and teachers to encash by surrendering up to 15 days of earned leave and is estimated to benefit more than nine lakh Government employees and teachers. “The relevant Government orders in this regard will be issued soon,” FM said. The state has around 10 lakh government employees and teachers currently.
Building on former CM M Karunanidhi’s steps in 1989 to enact equal property rights for women, the Budget announced steps to boost ownership of financial assets among women and for their financial independence. “The registration fee for all immovable assets, including houses, plots and agricultural lands, valued up to ₹10 lakh will be reduced by one per cent when registered in the name of women, from April 1, 2025,” the FM said in his speech. Around 75 per cent of the current registrations will be eligible to avail this concession, he added. This comes at a time when the state has budgeted a 14 per cent growth in stamp duty and registration fee revenue for FY26.
Besides these, the state allocated a subsidy of ₹3,600 crore for the ‘Vidiyal Payanam’ scheme to provide free bus travel to women. The ‘Kalaignar Magalir Urimai Thittam,’ which provides a monthly assistance of ₹1,000 directly into the bank accounts of over 1.15 crore women, got an allocation of ₹13,807 crore. Further, it set a target to provide bank loans of ₹37,000 crore to Self-Help Groups in the coming financial year. ₹225 crore has been allocated in FY26 to elevate women as entrepreneurs in the next five years. This involves support in the form of skill development training and access to bank loans of up to ₹10 lakh along with a 20 per cent subsidy. The budget also set aside over ₹350 crore to expand the network of its working women’s and girl student hostels across Chennai and other major cities.
- Also read: Tamil Nadu Budget 2025: Major push for capex with a 22 per cent increase
At a time when Artificial Intelligence (AI) has disrupted labour markets and job growth, the budget laid down measures to equip the youth with advanced technical knowledge and skills training and allocated ₹2,000 crore for this scheme in FY26. “Our Government has planned to provide high-tech devices to students studying in various colleges of Tamil Nadu, including arts, science, engineering, agriculture and medicine. In the first phase, 20 lakh college students will be provided with a tablet or laptop, based on their preference, over the next two years,” FM Thennarasu said.
