(a) whether the Government have recently concluded midterm review of Ninth Five Year
Plan;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Ninth Plan is going as per projection and allocations;
(d) if not, the reasons therefor; and
(e) the corrective steps taken/proposed to be taken by the Government in this regard?
MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF PLANNING, PROGRAMME
IMPLEMENTATION, ADMINISTRATIVE REFORMS, PUBLIC GRIEVANCES AND
DISINVESTMENT (SHRI ARUN SHOURIE)
(a) : Yes Sir. The draft Mid-Term Appraisal Document of the Ninth Plan was
considered in the Full Planning Commission Meeting held on 30th September, 2000 under the
Chairmanship of Hon`ble Prime Minister and Chairman, Planning Commission. The copies
of highlights of the Mid-Term Appraisal Document have already been placed in the
Parliament Library.
(b) & (c) The overall Growth rate of GDP during the first three years of the Ninth Five
Year Plan is estimated by Planning Commission to be 6.2 per cent per annum on an average
as against a target of 6.5 per cent. This shortfall is mainly accounted for by shortages in
growth performance of Agriculture, Mining & Quarrying and Manufacturing sectors, while
Construction, Communications, Public Administration & community Services have exceeded
the targets. Both domestic savings and investment have fallen short of targets by over 5 per
cent. The entire shortfalls are in the public sector, where public savings has recorded a
shortfall of 70 percent and public investment recorded a shortfall of 23 per cent. Private
investment has, however, exceeded the target by over 3 per cent.
There has been a shortfall of 8.6 per cent in the Gross Budgetary Support (GBS)
provided by the Central for the Plan in the first three years of the Ninth Five year Plan i.e.
1997-98 to 1999-2000. Only 44.45 percent of the projected resources have been mobilized
by the States during this period.
(d) Some of the reasons for the shortfall are:
(i) Shortfall in budget support for the Central plan mainly on account of the
constraints on the resource front.
(ii) Expected buoyancy in Revenue receipts did not materialise.
(iii) Non-plan expenditure grew faster than anticipated.
(iv) Shortfall in the Revenue receipts of the Centre.
(v) Shortfall in realisation of projected States Own Funds due to low balance
from current revenue, low miscellaneous capital receipts, inadequate
additional resource mobilization measures and unsatisfactory performance
of State Level Public Enterprises
(f) Bringing down the fiscal deficit and rate of inflation, appropriate pricing of services,
competition policy, effective targeting of subsidy etc. are some of the measures
suggested in the Mid-Term Appraisal.