Bhopal, May 13: The Finance Minister Shri Raghavji has said that it is misleading to say that the central government has provided Rs. 70 thousand 325 crore for the 11th Five Year Plan to Madhya Pradesh. In fact, only Rs. 14 thousand 308 crore is estimated to be received as central assistance, which is only 20.34 percent of the state plan size.

The Finance Minister said that owing to efficient financial management of the state government far more resources have become available for the state plan over last four years. In the first two years (2003-03 and 2003-04) of the 10th Five Year Plan, the state plan expenditure was Rs. 10 thousand 776 crore 16 lakh, against which in three years of the present government the expenditure was Rs. 23 thousand 320 crore 52 lakh.

Shri Raghavji said that the size of the 11th Five Year Plan has been fixed at Rs. 70 thousand 329 crore. It is attributable to efficient management of financial resources to be made available by the state government and cannot be said to be a gift of the central government, he added.

The Finance Minister said the present state government has increased its own tax revenue and effectively curbed unproductive expenditures. Besides, the capital expenditure has been increased remarkably. He informed that as per the budget estimate of 2007-08, a provision of Rs. 11 thousand 552 crore 21 lakh for state plan and under plan head a total provision of Rs. 13 thousand 118 crore 13 lakh was made. Under the plan head, a review of the expenditure under plan head was undertaken in January 2008 at administrative level and wherever necessary attention of the departments was drawn to the need for expediting the expenditure. As a result, the actual expenditure was Rs. 13 thousand 713 crore 26 lakh against the budget estimate of Rs. 13 thousand 118 crore 13 lakh under plan head, which is about 30 percent more than the plan expenditure of Rs. 10 thousand 571 crore 74 lakh in 2006-07. This is 96.5 percent of the revised estimate of Rs. 14 thousand 216 crore for year 2007-08.

Referring to the debts the Finance Minster said that borrowing by state government for infrastructure development schemes is part of financial management. It leads to increase in Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) and makes repayment of loans possible. He said that the present government has taken net loan of Rs. 14 thousand 749 core 37 lakh from 2004-05 to 2007-08, but against this spent Rs. 17 thousand 749 crore 37 lakh on infrastructure development during the period, which is 20.73 percent more than the net loan. Contrary to this, the previous government had borrowed Rs. 21 thousand 843 crore 10 years and had spent merely Rs. 10 thousand 218 crore on infrastructure development.