The Niti Aayog is gearing up to launch the three-year action plan from April 2017. The 12th five years plan is coming to an end on March 31. The three-year action plan to be unveiled this month will end the prevailing system of the centre patiently waiting (for) the state governments to implement the schemes.
The government had decided to do away with the practice of preparing annual budgets on the basis of 5-year plans from the current fiscal. Financial year 2016-17 was the terminal fiscal of the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17).
Under the new system, States will be encouraged to meet the targets of various schemes or face the prospects of drying up of the fund flows.
NITI Aayog has also been entrusted the work on the 15-year Vision Document and a seven year strategy, which would guide the government’s development works till 2030.
Since the government has done away with five-year plans with effect from April 1, 2017, it is imperative that the new three-year action plan is put into place at the earliest to guide various central ministries, departments and states to achieve the goal envisaged in the ‘Vision 2030’ document.
The 12th Five-Year Plan, which was the last of its kind in the series, was terminated on March 31, 2017.
The new three-year plan will also provide in detail the government’s expenditure classification on the basis of capital and revenue categories.
The Plan will take demonetization into account and will refrain from projecting revenue for the next year.
The government has also done away with the classification of Plan and non-Plan expenditure from April 1, 2017.
The policy-making body Niti Aayog had been mandated to come up with a 15-year vision document for a period up to 2030, which will be co-terminus with sustainable development goals.
The NITI Aayog has also been working on a 7-year strategy starting from 2017-18 to 2023-24 to convert the vision document into implementable policy and action as part of the National Development Agenda.
The 7-year strategy document will enumerate ways to achieve various goals and the 3-year action plan will aim at overall development of India.
The Parliament was also informed that these documents have not been prepared in silos. Rather, inputs were taken from various entities such as leading economists, business experts, scientists, farmers, defense and security experts, technology sector and various states and union territories.
It has also prepared a draft of the 3-year action plan for 2017-18 to 2019-20 which will be aligned with the 14th Finance Commission award period.