Misleading info about grants: Raghavji

Bhopal, May 13: The Finance Minister Raghavji has said that it is misleading to say that the central government has provided Rs 70,325 crore for the 11th Five Year Plan to Madhya Pradesh. In fact, only Rs 14,308 crore is estimated to be received as central assistance, which is only 20.34 percent of the state plan size.

The Finance Minister said that owing to efficient financial management of the state government far more resources have become available for the state plan over last four years. In the first two years (2003-03 and 2003-04) of the 10th Five Year Plan, the state plan expenditure was Rs 10,776.16 crore, against which in three years of the present government the expenditure was Rs 23,320.52 crore. Raghavji said that the size of the 11th Five Year Plan has been fixed at Rs 70,329 crore. It is attributable to efficient management of financial resources to be made available by the state government and cannot be said to be a gift of the central government, he added.

The Finance Minister said the present state government has increased its own tax revenue and effectively curbed unproductive expenditures. Besides, the capital expenditure has been increased remarkably. He informed that as per the budget estimate of 2007-08, a provision of Rs 11,552.21 crore for state plan and under plan head a total provision of Rs 13,118.13 crore was made. Under the plan head, a review of the expenditure under plan head was undertaken in January 2008 at administrative level and wherever necessary attention of the departments was drawn to the need for expediting the expenditure.

As a result, the actual expenditure was Rs 13,713.26 crore against the budget estimate of Rs 13,118.13 crore under plan head, which is about 30 percent more than the plan expenditure of Rs 10,571.74 crore in 2006-07. This is 96.5 percent of the revised estimate of Rs 14,216 crore for year 2007-08. Referring to the debts the Finance Minster said that borrowing by state government for infrastructure development schemes is part of financial management. It leads to increase in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and makes repayment of loans possible.