Summary:
With hi-tech gadgets, budget preparation may be child’s play, but getting a grip on the numbers and reigning in the state’s finances remain an arduous task as ever. It was manual collation of statistics, which involved hard work and sweat, said a senior officer, who served as finance secretary in the 1990s. "Mr Karunanudhi, who was also the finance minister, was pretty hands-on. "Sometimes, it gets as late as 2am hours before budget presentation when we go to the residences of the chief minister and finance minister and hand over the copies fresh from the press," said a source in the finance department. He would read every single line and take hours before clearing his budget speech," said Rajaraman.State finance department secretary (expenditure) M A Siddique is credited with bringing in radical changes in the process, including the digitization, in 2004..