The Plan size for the year 2011-12 may see an overall increase of 18 per cent in the upcoming Budget. But this could become real only when the finance ministry drops the idea of insisting the Planning Commission to shift many schemes, which are being run on cess collection from non-plan side into the ambit of plan expenditure.
Sources close to the process of finalising the gross budgetary support (GBS) for planned expenditure, revealed that it has been decided to have `4,41,000 crores at the disposal of the Plan panel, as compared to `3,73,000 crores in the current financial year. But still there exists a catch, as the finance ministry wants to shift many schemes, which are being run on cess collection from non-plan side into the ambit of plan expenditure, they added. However, informed sources said, PM Manmohan Singh is seized of the matter and so some more consultations might take place before finalising the actual figure.
Even the current figure of `4,41,000 crores could be arrived and agreed at only after the PM intervened into the matter, as the Plan panel was asking for `4,45,000 crores, but the finance ministry citing resource crunch was not in favour of giving more then 13 per cent hike, an official associated with the process revealed.
According to sources, the PM was of the view that if the hike in the GBS was not comparable with the current financial year, it will send a wrong signal to the people. “High economic growth should result in more spending on social and infrastructure sector schemes,” an official said.
However, it is almost finalised that in the next financial year, the government will not introduce any new scheme and the increase will only supplement the ongoing programmes with higher allocations. The Plan panel is expected to hike allocation for education, health and women and child welfare by over 25 per cent.