The Planning Commission will ask the finance ministry for a gross budgetary support of Rs 159,000 crore (Rs 1,590 billion) for 2003-04.

This is a jump of almost 32 per cent in nominal terms from the GBS figure of Rs 121,000 crore (Rs 1,210 billion) in the current fiscal.

The high GBS figure has been quoted as the plan body believes that public sector spending is a generator of demand in the economy and will therefore drive growth in the economy.

A major portion of the investment will go to the social sector, where the government cannot afford to cut investment.

For the development process to be sustainable, it would be imperative to achieve the social and human development indicators as approved by the National Development Council, which calls for larger allocations in social sectors, officials said.

Also, in the infrastructure sector, railways, roads and shipping require plan funds in view of the ongoing expansion and upgradation programmes.

The Tenth Plan had envisaged an 18 per cent increase in the GBS in the second and third years of the plan in order to push public investment, which was to be the main driver of growth in the economy.

In the last two years of the plan, the private sector was expected to take over the initiative in terms of investment.

In 2002-03, the first year of the plan, the plan body had got it's allocation of around Rs 113,000 crore (Rs 1,130 billion), as demanded. However, in the current fiscal, it got only Rs 121,000 crore (Rs 1,210 billion) as against a demand for about Rs 134,000 crore (Rs 1,340 billion).

The effective increase was only about 7 per cent. The actual amount the finance ministry actually allocates for the next fiscal will, however, depend on their fiscal deficit target for the next fiscal, said officials.

With committed expenditure on interest, pensions and subsidies, there is little leeway for them to allocate funds for the plan.