Full Plan panel to clear Approach to 12th Plan on April 21

NEW DELHI: The full Planning Commission, headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, will meet on April 21 to finalise the Approach Paper to the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), which seeks to raise the economic growth rate to 10 per cent from 8.1 per cent estimated in the current Plan.

The Paper will set broad framework for the 12th Plan. "The Commission will hold a full Plan panel meeting on April 21 to clear the Approach Paper to the 12th Five Year Plan," an official said.

Once approved by the full Plan panel and the Union Cabinet, the Paper will be placed before the country's apex policy making body National Development Council (NDC), headed by the Prime Minister and all chief ministers and union ministers on its board, for final approval.

Presided over by the Prime Minister, the full Planning Commission comprises key cabinet ministers, including Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Agriculture and Food Minister Sharad Pawar, Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and all its full-time and part-time members.

The Commission had set an average annual growth target of 9 per cent for the Eleventh Plan -- beginning with 8.5 per cent in the first year and closing with 10 per cent in the last year of the Plan period (2007-12).

In March last year, the full Commission meeting had scaled down the growth rate for the Eleventh Plan ending FY'12 to 8.1 per cent from 9 per cent in the wake of the global financial crisis that slowed the pace of economic expansion.

The growth target for the 12th Plan, as indicated by Singh on earlier occasions, is likely to be pegged at 10 per cent. The investment target for infrastructure sector sector is expected to be doubled to USD 1 trillion during 2012-17.