PUDUCHERRY: For the fiscal year 2011-12 the Puducherry government would receive a Plan outlay of Rs 2,750 crore, which is Rs 250 crore more than the the previous year.This plan outlay was fixed during a meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday between Chief Minister N Rangasamy, who is also the Finance Minister of the UT, other officials and a team of Planning Commission led by its deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. The Union Territory had presented a draft plan for `3,000 crore. Rangasamy said that he was happy with the plan allocation. “There is only eight months in the current financial year,” he told Express over phone from New Delhi. As the funding pattern of the UT has changed to 30 per cent being supported by grants and 70 per cent by loans and its own resources, loan burden has gone up and a special package was necessary, the CM said. “I have made representation to the Prime minister and the response has been good. I expect that he would consider it positively,” he added.Though the plan size has been enhanced, supporting its size with finance and its full utilisation will be a challenging task before the government. No governments in the past has been able to fully utilise the allocation.In the previous years under the XI five-year plan, the Annual plan outlay (APO) had to be brought down under Revised Annual Plan (RAP). The utilisation even fell short of the RAP.In 2010-2011, the plan outlay was `2,500 crore, which included an additional central assistance of `50 crore. However, the RAP was brought down to `1,800 crore and the utilisation was `1,583 crore.Similarly in 2009-2010, the AOP was `2250 crore, which was revised to `1,765 under RAP and utilisation was `1,450 crore. In 2008-1009, the APO was `1,750 crore, but the utilisation was just `1,100 crore, while in 2007-2008 the APO was `1,455 crore, while the utilisation was `1,090 crore.Now to utilise the plan allocation, a lot depends on grant of special package by the Centre. The other silver lining being the good revenue mobilisation by the territorial administration in 2010-2011 to the tune of `1,816 crore exceeding the targeted revenue of `1,500 crore and the trend still continuing.
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