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The Narendra Modi government is looking for an adviser in the Planning Commission, even as the deputy chairman is yet to be appointed, perhaps a sign of the current priorities.
'The Commission’s role might be truncated to an advisory body alone. The Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) might also see its role severely diminished.
The department of personnel & training has advertised a vacancy for an adviser's post in the Commisison, a joint secretary rank, on its website. The post is to be filled by August. The deputy chairman has Cabinet minister rank; the other members are in the rank of minister of state (MoS).
Rao Inderjit Singh's appointment as MoS (independent charge) for planning comes after quite a while. A minister was earlier appointed to have independent charge of the Commission in 1990, when there was someone of Cabinet rank.
A senior official explained, “This means all Parliament questions and files hitherto sent to the Prime Minister in view of him being the chairman of the Commission will be handled by the minister himself, without concerning the PM.”
The official said he believed the Commission might not be abolished (it was formed by an executive order in 1950) but would remain in the current state of limbo for a few more months, without the deputy chairman and members, to be replaced later with only a few advisers and members.
Officials said some talk had already started on appointing only senior sectoral advisers instead of full-time members or otherwise appointing only two or three full-time members, not as powerful as earlier.
Earlier, ministers of planning have been deputy chairmen of the Commission as well.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his earlier role as chief minister of Gujarat had been critical of the functioning of the Commission.
Officials also said for allocation of plan funds, a basic function of Commission, the new government might turn to a report of a committee headed by C Rangarajan, former chairman of PMEAC. The committee had proposed abolition of the distinction between Plan and non-Plan expenditure for both Centre and states.
It had said the budgetary plan allocation currently decided by the Commission for both Centre and state governments should be given to the finance ministry. On the other hand, the Planning Commission should widen its ambit to include non-Plan expenditure as well but only as an advisory body. Non-Plan spending includes subsidies, salaries and pensions, and devolution of taxes to states as decided by the Finance Commission, beside defence expenditure.
PMEAC might also see its role diminished, even as it was an advisory body earlier as well. Rangarajan has already resigned from its chairmanship. The new government has to take a call on its reconstitution, officials said.
The Commission in its long history had some illustrious names donning the post of deputy chairman, including former PMs Manmohan Singh and P V Narasimha Rao, incumbent President Pranab Mukherjee and others.
In the previous government, the Commission was headed by noted economist Montek Singh Ahluwalia, aided by eight full-time members who represented diverse fields. He was one of the longest serving deputy chairmen, for almost 10 years.
Manmohan Singh had in fact said a few months earlier that the Commission should reorient itself and critically analyse whether it was relying on tools developed for another era.
“With an increasingly open and liberalised economy, with a greater reliance on market mechanisms, we need to reflect on what needs to be the role of the Planning Commission in this new world,” he'd said.
