It is time, says the Planning Commission in its mid-term Plan appraisal, to address the continued slippage in spending on health and edcuation.
Though the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government has constantly termed these two sectors as priorities, the spending on these suffered significantly in the past three years.
The current (11th) Plan, runs for another two years and the Commission’s mid-term appraisal report has acknowledged that rural development, transport and energy got more than the projected funds, while health and education received less. Central assistance to education and health, at 15.3 per cent and 8.2 per cent, respectively, was much less than what was planned. When the Plan was formulated in 2007, education was to get the highest allocation at 21.75 per cent (Rs 2.7 lakh crore) of the overall central assistance (Rs 12.4 lakh crore) for the five years.
The other important sectors, by the allocations made at the beginning of the Plan, were rural development (21.43 per cent), health (11.3 per cent) and transport (11.37 per cent). However, in the first three years, the allocations went up in sectors like transport, urban and rural development and energy. “Health and education expenditure was limited by the spending capacity in earlier years and was expected to be backloaded…the issue for the next year is how far we can meet the funding gap in these sectors,” says the mid-term appraisal.
However, even as this observation pushes education and health back up the priority chart, the Commission estimates for 2011-12 reveal that with a 15 per cent rise in gross budgetary support (in 2011-12), the amount spent on education would be around 74 per cent (cumulatively) of what had been planned, the lowest among all sectors. Health would do marginally better, with 77 per cent of the initially planned resource allocation for the five years.
In 2011-12, education will get 20.5 per cent and health 11.28 per cent of total gross budgetary support (Rs 3.3 lakh crore), respectively. But, it will not be sufficient to make up for the lower spending in the initial years. By the end of the plan, health and education will constitute 16.73 per cent and 9.03 per cent, respectively of allocations, much less than the planned share of these two sectors in overall central resources.
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The share of energy and transport increased marginally, while rural development increased substantially through the Plan period.
| TIME TO PLUG THE HOLES | ||||||||
| Initial GBS allocation | % total | First four years GBS | % total | 2011-12* GBS | % total | 2007-12 GBS | overall % GBS | |
| Health | 140,135.00 | 11.30 | 71,255.00 | 8.21 | 37,229.00 | 11.28 | 108,485.00 | 9.06 |
| Edu | 269,872.00 | 21.75 | 132,770.00 | 15.30 | 67,712.00 | 20.51 | 200,482.00 | 16.73 |
| Rural dev | 265,821.00 | 21.43 | 261,115.00 | 30.09 | 82,269.00 | 24.92 | 343,384.00 | 28.66 |
| Urban dev | 16,129.00 | 1.30 | 19,017.00 | 2.19 | 6,720.00 | 2.04 | 25,737.00 | 2.15 |
| Energy | 34,648.00 | 2.79 | 32,920.00 | 3.79 | 12,250.00 | 3.71 | 45,171.00 | 3.77 |
| Transport | 141,092.00 | 11.37 | 115,913.00 | 13.36 | 39,432.00 | 11.94 | 155,346.00 | 12.97 |
| Total | 1,240,581.00 | 100.00 | 867,900.00 | 100.00 | 330,120.00 | 100.00 | 1,198,020.00 | 100.00 |
| Figues in Rs crore (approx); 2011-12*: Projected GBS: Gross Budgetary Support | ||||||||
Officials in the Planning Commission say even though the world economic downturn resulted in re-prioritisation of sectors, the situation could have been worse. “There is no doubt that the plan was affected by the downturn and the way we had planned resources could not really take off in a similar pattern, but health and education were always a priority and continue to be so. And, in the next two years, with the economy on track, we will be able to make up significantly for the lack in spending (in these sectors),” said a Planning Commission official, on condition of anonymity.
The only UPA government agenda not compromised due to economic factors during the period was rural development, projected to see spending equal to 129 per cent of the initially planned allocation by the end of the five-year period. Urban development will be the greatest beneficiary, with an allocation at 159.6 per cent of the overall Plan expenditure by 2012. Other sectors projected to be major beneficiaries would be transport (110 per cent) and energy (130.4 per cent).