It took the planners 18 months to prepare the Draft Outline of the Third Five-Year Plan released in June 1960. The National Development Council (NDC) approved of the draft back in September 1960. The NDC approved of the draft back in September 1960. And only a little over a week ago the NDC applied its wayward genius to the problem of fitting the somewhat outsize state plans into the frame-work of the national Plan and effected what may be loosely termed a compromise. In the result, the NDC committed the nation to physical programmes in the public sector which will, at a conservative estimate, cost Rs. 8, 000 crores while limiting the financial outlay to Rs. 7,500 crores. There was even some talk of devising ways and means to raise the Rs. 500 crores to cover the gap. But now it turns out that the Commission is not so interested in covering this gap which would have been impossible anyway. But rather than admit that realism has at last dawned upon them, the planners have now sought to explain away that what appears to be an “uncovered gap” is after all not a reality but a sheer illusion. The Planning Commission will not have any of the allocations lapsing at the end of the Plan period. It just does not seem to have occurred to them that short-falls in achievements are not so much due to failure to utilise the available resources fully as due to the inherent difficulties in translating the blueprints into concrete realities. It is a lot of moonshine to suggest that no matter what the resources are the achievements will be the greater provided the approach is more ambitious. Be that as it may, there is another snag that will prevent the Plan from going into stride on the day it supposed to. Although the first year’s programmes have been approved, there is as yet no detailed programme for the Third Plan. The draft outline which has been revised and made vaguer still has to be completely recast and rewritten. And it may not be ready even a couple of months after the Plan actually goes into operation on April 1. The planners, in a moment of sheer generosity, have nodded an assent to the private sector’s demand for more intensive investment. That is the private sector may now inflate its plan beyond the Rs. 4,000-crore limit if they can raise the necessary resources. There is nothing wrong in it except that it is impossible for the private sector to increase its investment unless the Government relaxes the myriad curbs imposed on it. And this is where the rub lies: Can the Government, for instance, reduce the burden of additional taxation on the private sector and yet be able to marshall the required sources to finance the investments in the public sector?
January 25, 1961
