The government in the Union Budget 2016 had announced to do away with plan, non-plan distinction at the end of the 12th five-year plan
The finance ministry has come out with revised guidelines for
public-funded projects under which schemes should be designed keeping in view
economies of scale and the need to share implementation machinery.
The streamlining of the public-funded projects is aimed at
expediting implementation and reducing time and cost overruns, an official
said.
The government in the Union Budget 2016-17 had announced to do
away with plan, non-plan distinction at the end of the 12th five-year plan.
After that announcement it was imperative that a plan, non-plan
neutral appraisal and approval system is put into place, the official said.
The quality of scheme or project formulation is the key bottleneck
which leads to poor execution at the implementation stage including time and
cost overruns.
“While designing new schemes/sub-schemes, the core principles to
be kept in mind are economies of scale, separability of outcomes and sharing of
implementation machinery,” the officials said.
“Schemes which share outcomes and implementation machinery should
not be posed as independent schemes, but within a unified umbrella programme
with carefully designed convergence frameworks,” the official added.
Further, as per the revised guidelines, no new autonomous body,
institution or other special purpose vehicle should be set up without the
approval of the cabinet. The 12th five-year plan ends next year.
