Plan outlay fixed at Rs. 6,040 crores

By Alok Mukherjee

NEW DELHI, AUG. 8. The core 2001-02 Annual Plan for Tamil Nadu has been finalised at Rs. 6,040 crores by the Planning Commission here today. The plan outlay is higher than that of last year by Rs. 340 crores.

The Plan discussions were conducted by the State Finance and Law Minister, Mr. C. Ponnaiyyan, who stood in for the Chief Minister, Ms. Jayalalithaa. The Chief Minister was expected to hold discussions with the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr K. C. Pant, but had to cancel her trip to Delhi on medical advice.

During the discussions, Mr. Pant complimented the State for progress in the health and education sectors as several initiatives had been taken to improve health and nutrition services for the vulnerable sections of society. Tamil Nadu also had the distinction of being the second major State to achieve replacement level fertility, and in education, the literacy rate had increased to 73.47 per cent in 2000-01 from 63.7 per cent in 1991, Mr. Pant said.

The Commission also noted the fact that Tamil Nadu had secured new investments through provision of infrastructure facilities and other assistance necessary for an orderly growth of the private sector. Efforts for promotion of information technology software exports and for the establishment of bio- technology park were also commented upon favourably by the Deputy Chairman.

On the financial performance, Mr. Pant pointed out that the overall realisation of resources during the first four years of the Ninth Plan were generally consistent with the projected levels. There was also an appreciable growth in tax revenues, he said. Still, Mr. Pant suggested that further mobilisation of non- tax revenue through upward revision of user charges should be attempted since the high levels of borrowings by the State need to be reduced to arrest the growing debt burden.

It was also suggested to the State Government to revamp and restructure public sector undertakings since 42 units out of the 67 were incurring losses. The Commission also pointed out that the State should increase power tariff to cover cost of production and also to make the State Electricity Regulatory Commission functional. The State was also told to tap its tourism potential further.

Mr. Pant also noted that the setting up of farmers groups to maintain irrigation systems was a step in the right direction but drew the attention of the State Government to the overexploitation of ground water and the diseases affecting coconut trees.

The State Government's presentation was made through the speech of the Chief Minister which was distributed at the meeting. Ms. Jayalalithaa had pointed out that the growth in the Ninth Plan period was volatile and also emphasised that the contribution of the agriculture sector to the gross State Domestic Product had turned negative in the last two years. The slump in the manufacturing sector was mainly due to negative growth of the textile sector, the Chief Minister had said. Only the tertiary sector registered impressive gains, mainly due to the fast growth of information technology and allied services, she had pointed out.

The Chief Minister had also pointed out that because of the improved socio-economic conditions in Tamil Nadu, the State's share of Central assistance was coming down. Successive Finance Commissions had reduced the State's share and illustrated the point by saying that while the loss to the State was around Rs. 500 crores per year, it was to be given an incentive of around Rs. 80 crores only per year for fiscal reforms.

The Chief Minister's presentation included the information that the current year's Plan would be focussed on social sector development with an allocation of nearly 43 per cent of the total outlay.

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