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NDC has opted for 8% growth: Plan panel

The Planning Commission has admitted that the National Development Council had opted for 8 per cent growth target for the Tenth Plan despite a much lower demonstrated growth potential of the economy in the medium term and said mobilisation of resources for this would be a major challenge.

"The medium term performance of the economy over the past several years suggests that the demonstrated growth potential is only about 6.5 per cent. The proposed 8 per cent growth target involves an increase of at least 1.5 percentage points over the medium term performance, which is substantial," draft Plan document, approved by the Union Cabinet recently, said.

"Nevertheless, the NDC affirmed its faith in the latent potentialities of the Indian economy by approving the 8 per cent growth target," it said while pointing out that economic

growth had decelerated to 5.3 per cent during the ninth Plan period from 6.7 per cent in the previous plan.

At the same time, the document reveals several gaps both on central and state fronts on mobilisation of resources while admitting that "central ministries had indicated an internal extra budgetary resources (IEBR) of Rs 487,448 crore (Rs 4,874.48 billion), which falls short by Rs 28,108 crore (Rs 281.08 billion)vis-a-vis the required IEBR.

"The IEBR currently indicated by the central ministries if taken in place of the projected IEBR, reduces the central resources for the Tenth Plan to Rs 8,93,183 crore ((Rs 8,931.83 billion) against the approved target of Rs 9,21,291 crore (Rs 9,212.91 billion)," it adds.

The document, which will be tabled before the National Development Council on December 21, suggests a number of steps including improvement of the operational efficiency of the Indian Railways and public sector power units with a view to generate adequate internal resources.

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