Rolling budget plan not discussed at full Plan panel meet

NEW DELHI: The proposal to switch over to a three year rolling budget plan for effective implementation of plan target did not come up at the full Planning Commission meeting on Saturday chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
"The issue was not discussed at today''s meeting," a Planning Commission member said.
Planning commission Deputy chairman K C Pant is reported to have discussed the proposal for switching over a three year rolling budget plan with the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his recent one-to-one meeting.
Pant parried queries on whether such as issue was discussed during his meeting with Vajpayee earlier this week, saying such parleys were "confidential" and they cannot be divulged.
He also sidestepped questions on differences between Planning Commssion and Finance Ministry over plan allocation to states saying, "the plan document had been approved unanimously".
Asked how Planning Commission proposed to achieve eight per cent growth during 2002-07 Tenth Plan when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had in its World Economic Outlook projected only five per cent GDP growth this year and 5.7 per cent next year, Pant quipped that IMF''s Deputy Managing Director Anne Kruger had also said that eight per cen growth is achievable in India.