| The Left parties want gross budgetary support (GBS) for the 11th Plan to be hiked substantially to fulfil commitments in the national common minimum programme (NCMP).
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| In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today, CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat and CPI General Secretary AB Bardhan said the GBS for the 10th Plan was 7 per cent of the GDP.
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| This, they said, had to be increased by at least 4.75 per cent. Of this increase, 1 per cent would be needed for agriculture, 1 per cent for education, 1 per cent for health, 0.75 per cent for job guarantee scheme, 0.5 per cent for social security and 0.5 per cent for universalisation of the Integrated Child Development Scheme.
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| In addition, an increase of 0.5 per cent of the GDP in non-Plan expenditure was required to strengthen the PDS, the Left leaders said, adding that the budgetary support be increased by at least 1 per cent of the GDP in the first year of the Plan and by a similar amount in the subsequent years.
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| The rigid targets set by the fiscal responsibility Act should not be allowed to come in the way of enhancing Plan expenditure, they said.
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| The suggestion of postponing the targets, as made in the draft approach paper to the Plan, should be considered seriously, they added.
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| The leaders said the Planning Commission had proposed a GBS increase of only 2.5 per cent. “This implies that either the NCMP mandated schemes would be underfunded or Plan expenditure on other items would be cut in order to fulfill the NCMP commitments, which is unwarranted,” the letter said.
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| As for the resources, the leaders cited a note circulated in a recent meeting of the consultative committee attached to the Ministry of Finance, according to which total tax exemptions/concessions in 2004-05 stood at Rs 17,6073 crore ( 5.8% of GDP), out of which corporate tax exemptions amounted to Rs 57,852 crore (1.9% of GDP).
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| “Curbing such tax exemptions along with the implementation of other proposals for resource mobilisation made by the Left parties would help in the financing of enhanced Plan expenditure,” the letter said. |
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