States’ 9th Plan resource mopup target goes haywire

Amiti Sen

New Delhi, Oct 17: Resource mobilisation by states has been extremely poor in the first four years of the Ninth Plan with borrowings touching Rs 2,33,569 crore against Rs 1,82,075 crore target.

State’s own contribution netted a negative Rs 1,07,099 crore against a target of Rs 3,814 crore.

The aggregate Plan resources of the states for the Ninth Plan was projected at Rs 3,54,664 crore. In the first four years, total Plan resources mobilised was Rs 2,24,990 crore which is 63.4 per cent of the projected resources. Central assistance in the period was Rs 98,520 crore which is 58.4 per cent of the projected amount of Rs 1,68,775 crore.

According to the Planning Commission, the low level of mobilisation of states own resources was due to deteriorating Balance from Current Revenues (BCR) position, unsatisfactory performance of state level public enterprises (SLPEs) and low additional resource mobilisation (ARM).

It pointed out that the low BCR was due to low realisation of revenue receipts which at Rs 5,37,768 crore was only 74 per cent of the projected level. At the same time, non-plan revenue expenditure has been high and has already touched 87 per cent of the projected level for five years.

This is mainly due to the pay scale revision and rapid increase in interest payments on account of large borrowing availed by states to finance their Plans.

The Commission pointed out that poor performance of SLPEs had also contributed towards a large deterioration in states own funds.

Although, the Plan envisaged a contribution of Rs 1,353 crore from SLPEs, the actual realisation has been a negative Rs 22,945 crore.