
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman, Planning Commission, is scheduled to meet finance minister P Chidambaram on Friday to take a final call on weeding out a number of centrally-sponsored schemes CSS.
An expert group set up by the Planning Commission had suggested terminating 130 schemes that had a total outlay of Rs 8,432.81 crore in the current fiscal. It had recommended retaining only 25 schemes that accounted for a bulk, or 88.29 per cent, of the total CSS outlay of Rs 71,996.78 crore in 2006-07.
According to finance ministry sources, the government could axe many of these schemes in Budget 2007-08 since the current fiscal was the terminal year of the Tenth Five Year Plan. 8220;The Eleventh Five Year Plan can begin on a fresh note with sunset clauses mentioned for each scheme that needs to be retained. The other schemes can be merged with existing ones or weeded out,8221; said an official.
The finance ministry has been pushing for rationalisation of these schemes for the last couple of years since many of them served little purpose. 8220;Some of the schemes have been running for over 20 years now, and have outlived their utility,8221; the official added.