Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is likely to intervene to resolve the standoff between the finance ministry and the Planning Commission over the gross budgetary support of Rs 1,34,000 crore for 2003-04.
According to top government officials, the Prime Minister is being roped in to convince Finance Minister Jaswant Singh about the need for a step up in the gross budgetary support for the next fiscal.
In a recent letter to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman KC Pant, the finance minister pointed to the difficult fiscal situation and the paucity of resources in the wake of the drought.
Singh has conveyed to the panel that it would be difficult to provide such a huge support next year.
North Block officials said the gross budgetary support at Rs 1,13,500 crore for 2002-03 already represented a significant 14.5 per cent jump over the previous year
