Rs 1,02,000 Crore Plan Support For 2003-04

The finance ministry has offered only Rs 1,02,000 crore as gross budgetary support during 2003-04 to the Planning Commission, as against Rs 1,34,000 crore demanded by it.

While Planning Commission Deputy Chairman K C Pant has already briefed Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the fund requirement for the fiscal, Finance Minister Jaswant Singh is meeting the Prime Minister today.

The reduced gross budgetary support means the rough allocations made to different central ministries will have to be sharply pruned by the Plan body.

Since the Planning Commission had already completed discussions with the central ministries and the rough Plan allocations had been decided at the divisional level, the finance ministry was likely to come under immense pressure from the various ministries on that count, officials said.

The gross budgetary support, which the finance ministry is willing to provide for 2003-04, is lower than the Rs 1,13,000 crore allocated during the current fiscal.

While the Planning Commission was asking for a much higher figure for 2003-04, based on an anticipated 8 per cent growth figure for the economy, the finance ministry was willing to go along with only 6 per cent growth.

In a letter to the Planning Commission, Expenditure Secretary D C Gupta has reiterated the finance minister