Vettri Payanam, which alone is expected to cost an additional ₹1,600 crore a year and a total of ₹6,000 crore for free travel, has brought to focus social return on investment (SROI) versus fiscal cost.
Actor-turned CM C. Joseph Vijay seems to have mastered the art of welfare politics by accommodating the gratis within an about ₹4 lakh crore revenue-spending framework. However, the real test is whether the government can convert 84 lakh daily journeys into measurable gains in female employment, productivity, household income and mobility.
Going by Tamil Nadu’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), estimated at ₹40.67 lakh crore for 2026-27, it is large enough to afford Vetri payanam in a narrow accounting sense.
Nevertheless, the State’s outstanding liabilities are projected at about 27% of GSDP in 2026-27. Besides, debt servicing is about ₹1.28 lakh crore or 37% of the state’s estimated revenue receipts.
The latest initiative, launched on Gandhi Jayanti Day, is an extension of the existing women’s zero-fare bus scheme, Vidiyal Payanam, covering a much wider range of government buses. The scale is substantial, as 12,692 buses, about 69% of the 18,413 scheduled buses operated by the eight state transport undertakings, have been brought under Vettri Payanam.
Of the 1.95 lakh scheduled single trips, around 1.65 lakh, or 85%, will operate under the scheme. The government expects approximately 84.32 lakh women to benefit every day.
Cost to exchequer
The annual allocation for the free travel scheme, including Vetri Payanam, is reportedly estimated to cost around ₹6,000 crore annually. Before expansion, the annual allocation was about ₹4,400 crore, implying an additional burden of approximately ₹1,600 crore a year.
Tamil Nadu’s 2025-26 Budget allocated up to ₹3,600 crore as a subsidy for Vidiyal Payanam (launched by the previous DMK regime), along with ₹1,782 crore for concessional student fares and ₹1,857 crore for diesel subsidies.
The expanded Vettri Payanam scheme accounts for only 1.7% of revenue receipts and 0.15% of GSDP in isolation, but the State’s budgeted ₹55,775-crore revenue deficit indicates that current revenues are insufficient to meet current expenditure.
Bright spots
Citing studies that found economic rationale in such populist schemes, at ₹6,000 crore a year, the State is effectively betting that cheaper mobility will produce higher female labour participation, higher household disposable income, better access to education and healthcare and stronger use of public transport.
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