Panel Unsure Of Plan Review Approach

Planning Commission experts, who have been asked to revise the final draft of the Ninth Plan, are in the dark on whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government wants to retain the approach paper that was approved by the National Development Council (NDC) during the United Front regime.

The experts are going through the process of revising the Ninth Plan based on the National Agenda of Governance (NAG) of the ruling coalition as they have been asked to do by the government.

Revision of the Plan would require a reassessment of the resource situation and a review of the very approach to the Plan.

"Normally, a new government at the Centre would want to revise the approach to a five-year Plan. Some of the state governments, which endorsed the approach in the NDC, have also changed. But there is no word from the government on this issue," a plan panel expert said.

One reason why the government is not rushing to change the approach is the delicate balance of power in the coalition ministry and the difficulties involved in getting approval of all the chief ministers to a new approach if the NDC is convened to approve it.

The recent political turmoil in Tamil Nadu over the issue of raising electricity charges for farmers was a pointer to this fact. The Ninth Plan draft has recommended raising the charges paid by farmers because the low rates are coming in the way of reviving state electricity boards, which has also affected the growth of the private power producers.

The focus on the NAG is to increase public investments in infrastructure and social sector. This will mean a further increase in outlays for these sectors.

But economic sanctions imposed by the United States and consequent downgrading of India's sovereign rating by Moody's has thrown up a new dimension. Plan panel experts are concerned that it may not be possible to increase public investments in certain sectors if external assistance is reduced or shut off.

At another level, the government's insistence to keep fiscal deficit under check is a major stumbling block in the commission's efforts to increase public investments in several areas.

The National Thermal Power Corporation has planned some major projects on the assumption that the Overseas Economic Co-peration Fund (OECF) of Japan will fund it. But OECF has made it clear that it will not be possible to fund future projects in view of economic sanctions imposed by the government of Japan.