3-year Plan targets mooted

Prime minister reviews mid term appraisal of the tenth plan

The finance ministry has been asked to work out a medium term budgetary framework that would set three-year targets to help the Centre move towards a more flexible planning process.

"The ministry should inform us what comes out of a medium-term framework (revenue expenditure and deficit figures) and the short-term constraints, and allow us to do anticipatory planning. We have to find ways of cooperating more with the finance ministry," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said at a press conference today.

Ahluwalia said the economy would grow at about 6.5 per cent in the Tenth Plan period (2002-07), with the last two years averaging 7.7-7.8 per cent growth.

He said the mid-term appraisal document would, after minor modifications, be sent to the Cabinet for clearance and then be tabled before the National Development Council, which is scheduled to meet on 29-30 April.

He said raising the growth rate would require renewed focus on agriculture. The commission will bring out a joint paper with the agriculture ministry on the long-term agenda to bring dynamism to agriculture.

The growth rate in agriculture needed to be hiked to 4 per cent from the 1.5 per cent it has been stuck with after a prolonged slowdown since the mid-1990s, Ahluwalia said, adding that it was important that this be achieved in the remaining two years of the Plan.

This would require more investments in areas like irrigation, water management and soil conservation in dryland areas, among other things.

On the Prime Minister's call for a flexible planning process, Ahluwalia said the commission would work on the idea as it moved towards the Eleventh Plan.

"Some things need to be thought of in a 10-year horizon, some need to be changed more frequently. The Budget does look at that""priorities are changed within annual plans," he said. Ahluwalia also emphasised the need to ensure fiscal prudence along with stepped up public and plan investment.

In addition to areas like telecom and power, where the private sector is to play an important role, the mid-term appraisal had identified areas like secondary education and tertiary healthcare, which offered the potential for public-private partnerships.