8% growth not achievable due to initial slippages, says PM

According to Singh, the most important message of the MTA is that though there are many positive features, there are slippages in the first three years of the plan period which need corrective action. Singh, however, said the UPA government has acted swiftly on several fronts to remove the deficiencies observed in the first three years and had stepped up expenditure on critical sectors like health, education, mid-day meals and employment programmes.

The Prime minister said the government has underlined seven priority areas for action, namely agriculture, water, education, health, employment, urban renewal and infrastructure.

The MTA has emphasised on these seven sectors on which, the PM said, ‘‘we hope to build the superstructure, fast growing equitable economy’’.

He added that, ‘‘we have outlined programmes that require both financial and administrative support in each of these areas.’’ As the government’s priorities shift towards social and rural infrastructure, Singh said high growth would not take place without substantial increase in private investment.

He pointed out that the government would have to incentivise the private sector to enter unfamiliar areas through well-designed public-private partnership models.

Reiterating, the Commission’s committment to the seven core sectors, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahluwalia said the ‘‘MTA brings out the fact that agriculture growth needs to be hiked from 1.5 per cent to 4 per cent. Without higher agriculture growth, the economy cannot grow at a faster rate,’’ Ahluwalia added.

Replying to a question on more frequent reviews of the plan process instead of a five year time frame, Ahluwalia added that the finance ministry has already moved towards medium term budgetting and the Commission should co-ordinate with the finance ministry on short-term reviews too.

‘Domestic oil prices should reflect global prices’

New Delhi: The Planning Commission on Tuesday virtually favoured hiking petro-product prices saying domestic pricing mechanism should necessarily reflect the international prices, which according to Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, are unlikely to ease in the near future. Even as the Commission did not factor the impact of shooting global prices in the MTA of the Tenth Plan, Ahluwalia said ‘‘if international oil prices remain the way they are then oil prices and prices of related products will have to be raised.’’ The petroleum ministry will look into the issue of pricing, Ahluwalia added. — ENS