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State Finances: Delhi tops in per capita Plan resource

This is the first part of a series on state finances which looks at the sharp disparities in the per capita Plan resources available to various states.

Mamata Singh in New Delhi

Delhiites, it seems, will continue to be the best-kept people in the country. Residents of the Capital will have Rs 13,550 per capita plan resources available to them during the Tenth Plan-70 per cent increase from the Ninth Plan availability of Rs 7,939.96.

In sharp contrast, residents of Bihar will have only Rs 1,689.50 per head, 87 per cent lower than the amount available for a Delhiite.

Though, how the residents will benefit from the aggregate Plan resources available depends on how the state governments utilise the funds.

The broad trend indicates that the better-off non-special category states will have more resources available per head than the relatively backward ones.

The per capita Plan resource availability has been calculated by dividing the projected aggregate Plan resources for the Tenth Plan by the projected population figures in 2006, the terminal year of the plan.

The figures are only a rough estimate and will depend on whether states manage to attain the population growth targeted for them in the Plan. Figures for Goa and Pondicherry are, however, not available.

Kerala is second on the list with an aggregate Plan resource allocation per person projected at Rs 8,796, a 167 per cent increase from Rs 3,298 during the previous Plan.

Karnataka is third at Rs 7,486 per head followed by Punjab at Rs 6,987. Maharashtra at Rs 6,187 is fifth on the list. Punjab's allocation has been hiked by 100 per cent from the Ninth Plan realisation, while the increase in case of the other two states is around 50 per cent.

However, in case of both Karnataka and Maharashtra, the Ninth Plan aggregate Plan resource allocation was around 110 per cent more than the projections.

Andhra Pradesh is sixth on the list with an aggregate Plan resource allocation per head at Rs 5,519, much higher than the Rs 3,394 available per head in the previous Plan.

The projected aggregate Plan resources for the Tenth Plan are the sum total of central assistance, states own funds and borrowings of the state governments projected for the next five years.

Gujarat at Rs 5,042 per head is the state with the lowest increase in per person Plan resource availability compared to the Ninth Plan. It is only 8 per cent higher than the Ninth Plan realisation.

Three new states, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Uttaranchal, have been included in the list for the Tenth Plan. Their populations for 2006 have been estimated using the projected growth rates for Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.

Jharkhand is eighth while Chhattisgarh is 13th on the list followed by West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Among the special category states, Sikkim is slated to get the highest aggregate Plan resources per head during the Tenth Plan at Rs 31,527, followed by Arunachal Pradesh at Rs 30,728.

Mizoram is in third position with a per head allocation of Rs 18,950 and Meghalaya is fourth with Rs 14,468 per head. The projections for the Tenth Plan are almost 95 per cent higher than the Ninth Plan realisations for the state.

Availability of plan resources per person for Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura will, however, be lower than the Ninth Plan period. Himachal Pradesh is fifth followed by Uttaranchal.

Part II: Why states are borrowing more?

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