Party Forum
New Delhi, 9 July 2014
Planning Commission
WOUND UP OR
TRANSFORMED?
By Dhurjati Mukherjee
Does India
need a Planning Commission? Does it serve any utility? None, if most experts are
to be believed. According to them this large body has little value in today’s state
of affairs. Towards that end, the erstwhile UPA regime had set up an
Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) for evaluating Government schemes and
programmes, including assessing the role and effectiveness of the Planning
Commission in November 2010.
Notably, in its recent report to Prime Minister Modi, the
IEO underscored that the Planning Commission in its present form is “a
hindrance not a help to India’s
development”. Adding, it is impossible to reform such a large ossified body, instead,
the report suggested replacing the Commission with a new body needed “to assist
States to provide long-term thinking and help in (carrying out) reforms.”
Further, the IEO report observed: “Since the Planning
Commission has defied attempts to reform and be in line with the requirements
of a modern economy and the need to empower States, it proposed the Commission
be replaced”.
Obviously, replacing and/or transforming the mammoth Commission
has to be carried out in a phased manner so that it becomes an effective
instrument in providing necessary support and guidance to States.
Pertinently, even as the Planning Commission has been
bringing out voluminous documents, approach papers, Five Year Plans and
mid-term reviews etc most of these documents had very little practical value
and did not help States in any manner. In fact, over the last few decades the
reports/documents not only elicited merely academic interest but also could have
been brought out by any University and/or academic institution, if assigned the
task.
Remember, in early 2008, a well known public finance expert Amaresh
Bagchi pointed out that the Planning Commission helped in diving taxing revenue
in such a way that the Centre was much richer than the States.
True, whether this was a ploy to exert control over the States
through financial power is not known but possibly this was one of the key
directives to the Commission.
Besides, when the Centre instituted the Five-Year Plans, it
also decided to control expenditure related to these Plans. However not a few experts
felt the Commission was used to enslave States financially without bothering to
understand their problems and offering solutions.
Undoubtedly, the Planning Commission has not helped in any
way in checking and/or curbing the fiscal problems of States, some of which are
in dire distress. In the first decade of the present Century, some of the States
were so bankrupt that they had to borrow even to meet their revenue
expenditure.
Even after these problems accentuated, the Commission did not
offer any concrete solutions to the States. In effect, it expected States Chief
Ministers to come with a begging bowl to finalize their annual plans every year.
Also, it has been pointed out that such an exercise is
meaningless and should be discontinued. In its place, a rational and judicious
methodology should be evolved in finalizing the annual plans whereby the States
performance, efficiency and monitoring aspects should primarily be considered.
This could be done by any agency; consequently such a huge Planning Commission
is not required.
Arguably, if this work ceases, what use would the Commission
have? Think. Even Five-Year Plans have been an anachronism. As it stands, it is
impossible to predict the course of the economy five years ahead notwithstanding
a future outlook Plan of action is needed.
It is also not possible to forecast the outcome of projects
as there have been several instances whereby not even 50-60 per cent work has been
accomplished in the Five Year Plan period. It needs to be mentioned here that Britain’s Treasury
issues a rolling five year macro-economic forecast together with its annual
budget.
There is no gainsaying, it is politically impossible to
close down the Planning Commission at this juncture in spite of the recent IEO report.
All said and done, there is also very little logic in winding up the Body
totally as some of the work done needs to be continued.
For example, the project evaluation division needs to be
strengthened to assess the work being completed all over the country along-with
giving guidelines, including technical consultancy for improvement, if
necessary.
Significantly, the Comptroller and Auditor General too does
the same thing with admirable efficiency but his scrutiny is only financial. In
assessing projects, it could also help the States by finding technical
consultants --- both Indian and foreign --- and also arrange finance.
Undeniably, the Commission should be replaced with a small
outfit to formulate future action plans in consultation with States, along-with
their financial requirement say over a period of three to five years. Additionally,
the alleviation of poverty should be given due cognizance and the problems
being faced in this regard by the states should be duly considered.
In future, the Commission should be more careful – and
academically equipped -- in making estimates like it did when, in an affidavit
submitted with the Supreme Court, it observed that households with per capita
consumption of more than Rs 32 a day in urban areas and Rs 26 a day in rural
areas would not be treated as poor.
Furthermore, a major activity of the Commission is to constantly
inter-act with States regarding their financial problems as also future
projects to be undertaken. Starting from assessing the viability of these
projects to arranging consultants and investment and eventually helping States
in monitoring these, could emerge as the Planning body’s most important
activity in the coming years.
There can be no denying that a transformed Commission has to
be in place and the earlier this is done, the better. Before taking any
decision, it needs to be seriously thought out. An expert body from different
disciplines should be given the task to clearly outline the various functions
of the Commission, including the new responsibilities it has to shoulder.
In the ultimate, it is expected that the Modi Government
would not take much time to give due attention to reforming the Planning Commission
and shouldering it with added responsibilities. ----- INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
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