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With general elections only a few months away, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia might skip the customary one-to-one meetings with some chief ministers, while finalising the annual Plans for states, for 2014-15.
According to a senior official, chief ministers usually avoid coming personally to discuss their annual plan ahead of a general election. The commission has started the process of finalising these and has asked state government to send their proposals by the end of this month. They’ve been directed to commence the process of formalising their proposal on the basis of a five per cent increase in the normal central assistance for state Plans. All other components of the annual central assistance will be maintained at the 2013-14 level.
Officials said as the Union government had restructured Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS), reducing the number by either weeding out or clubbing some schemes, there could be some impact on the size of the state Plan. The restructuring will be reflected in the classification of fund flows from the Centre to the states appropriately, the official explained. The number of CSS was cut from 147 to 66.
Some officials said the commission had sought plan expenditure proposals from central ministries and departments without any cap on an increase in 2014-15. The government will table an interim Budget for the coming year. After receiving all the proposals from departments, ministries and states, the commission readies the Plan outlay.
The government had budgeted a Rs 5.55 lakh crore Plan outlay for 2013-14, about 6.5 per cent higher than the Budget estimate for 2012-13. This included the total Budget support to the central Plan and central assistance to states. Since there was a massive cut in plan expenditure than what was pegged in the estimates, the Budget estimate for 2013-14 represents a 34 per cent higher outlay than the Rs 4.14 lakh crore actually spent on 2012-13.
The commission has pegged a plan outlay of Rs 35 lakh crore for the 12th Plan (2012-13 to 2016-17), around 125 per cent more than in the 11th Plan (2007-08 to 2011-12). Of this, Rs 9.7 lakh crore will be spent in the first two years, assuming the Budget estimate for 2013-14 is fully spent.
