Niti Aayog suggests three-year action plan for social sectors

NEW DELHI: India could see significant improvement in capital expenditure on social sectors like health and education with NITI Aayog's three-year action agenda proposing linking central government expenditures to future priorities.

The three-year action plan (2017-2020), prepared by think-tank NITI Aayog, has suggested shifting the composition of expenditures by allocating a larger proportion of additional revenues that become available over time to high-priority sectors. The action plan has replaced the five-year plan plans of the erstwhile Planning Commission and would be soon followed by a fifteen year vision document and a seven year strategy document.

"Under the proposed agenda, the share of non-developmental revenue expenditure in total expenditure would decline from 47% in 2015-16 to 41% in 2019-20," it said, adding that at the same time the share of capital expenditure, which is more likely to promote development, would rise significantly.

"The proposals imply substantial expansion in expenditures by 2019-20 on education, health, agriculture, rural development, defence, railways, roads and other categories of capital expenditure," it said.

"It is great that we move from plan to strategy," Manish Sabharwal of Teamlease said.

However, experts feel that some of the timelines in the action agenda are unrealistic.

"The action agenda is a comprehensive documented. I am daunted at the different timelines articulated by the document," NK Singh, a politician and an economist said at the panel discussion of the Aayog just before the launch of the Action Plan by finance minister Arun Jaitley.