National Development Council meet On 12th Five Year Plan on Dec 29

The timing assumes significance as during an election time, the platform of NDC could be used to score political points

The government will hold the critical meeting of the National Development Council (NDC) to approve the 12th five-year plan document on December 29, almost 10 days after the results of assembly elections in politically crucial states of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh is out.

The Plan proposes an acceleration of growth over the plan period to reach 9% in the terminal year, yielding an average growth rate of 8.2% during 2012-2013 to 2016-17 as a whole. Officials said the NDC is expected to see participation from Chief Ministers of all states and union territories both ruled by the opposition parties and ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

The timing assumes significance as during an election time, the platform of NDC could have been used to score political points. The document has already been okayed by the union cabinet earlier this month.  Officials said the plan document also stresses that growth must be both inclusive and sustainable, and to achieve these objectives it proposes a comprehensive game plan in terms of policies and programmes.

The estimates show resource availability for the 12th at Rs.80, 50,123 crore in current prices for the Centre and States taken together. This implies the public sector resources for the 12th plan (2012-2017) would be 11.8% of GDP as against 10.96% realized during the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012).

The document said that to achieve the targeted growth rate, the fixed investment rate should increase to 35% of GDP (at constant prices) by the end of the 12th plan, yielding an average fixed investment rate of 34% of GDP (at constant prices) for period as a whole. 

The projected average rate of gross domestic capital formation in the 12th plan is 37% of GDP, the projected gross domestic savings rate is 34.2% of GDP and the net external financing needed for macro-economic balance would average around 2.9% of GDP.

Finance minister, P Chidambaram has already termed the 12th plan estimates as ambitious having ambitious growth projections.