The document is meant for course correction by policy makers, to assess the impact of the targets placed and the achievement. This legacy might not continue once the current plan concludes in 2017, with the NITI Aayog having replaced the earlier Planning Commission. The government is also expected to issue a Cabinet resolution to disband the National Development Council (NDC), which used to approve an MTA. The idea is to replace the NDC with the NITI Aayog governing council.
In the 11th Plan (2007-12), the target was to achieve nine per cent average annual economic growth. By the time its MTA was done, after three years, the global economic crisis had set in and India's own growth fell from 9.2 per cent in 2007-08 to 6.7 per cent in 2008-09, before recovering marginally to 7.4 per cent in 2009-10. Even so, the then commission retained the nine per cent annual target on the hope that external factors would normalise. The actual growth turned out to be 8.04 per cent a year on an average for 2007-12.
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No firm growth projections were made for the 12th plan. Instead, three scenarios were envisaged, of average annual growth of eight per cent, 6-6.5 per cent and 5.5.5 per cent. The document said the first one could be achieved when all envisaged policies were in place and things moved smoothly. It was expected to drop to 6-6.5 per cent with insufficient action. In the case of a policy logjam, it could further slide to 5-5.5 per cent.
Officials said the MTA of the 12th plan could highlight the less than satisfactory growth due to a 'business as usual' approach. However, it would not lay down any road map of the expected growth in the remaining years of the plan. Moreover, it is difficult to compare the targets set and actual realisation. For, the Central Statistics Office has changed the method of calculating GDP numbers from the base year of 2011-12. The numbers were drastically revised for 2012-13, the first year of the plan, as well as 2013-14.