Montek’s letter: Gujarat says some figures shown out of context

Despite the state government’s claims that Gujarat was better placed than Maharashtra in terms of economic indicators,Ahluwalia had highlighted that the state was not only behind its neighbour,but also lagging behind Andhra Pradesh (10 per cent),Karnataka (11.1 per cent) and even the national average of 7.1 per cent. “The state’s own tax revenue as percentage of GSDP was 6.4 per cent,which was lower than that of Maharashtra (7.6 percent),” according to the plan panel.

However,the government statement claimed Gujarat’s tax GDP ratio was not 6.4 but 7.02 per cent — “almost the same as the national average of 7.1 per cent”.

The statement further said this was because the state government wanted to avoid burdening people with higher taxes,and also since the state does not get revenue from liquor sales as it has a prohibition in place,to “uphold Gandhian ideals”.

Ahluwalia was also categoric that the state’s financial projections in the Annual Plan 2010-11 under the Scheduled Castes (Sub Plan) and Tribal (Sub Plan) were “not in proportion to their share in total population”. But the government has held that the “average appears to be on the lower side because of the formula adopted by the Planning Commission,which does not take into account the electricity,drinking water,irrigation projects,roads and Narmada project benefits given to the Scheduled Castes”.

Ahluwalia had also lambasted Gujarat’s social indicators,underlining that Infant Mortality Rate declined only by 10 points against the all India level of 13 points,and Maternal Mortality Rate by only 12 points against the national level of 47 points between 2001-2003 and 2004-06,adding this was of “great concern”. But the state said these figures are “shown out of context”. According to it,the state’s Human Development Index (HDI) is improving and it has gone up to push the state from sixth to fifth place in the country.

As for Ahluwalia’s observation that Gujarat needed to raise resources to plug the resources gap of Rs 1,622.43 crore for the annual plan of 2010-11,which is 25 per cent higher than last year,the government said during discussions,the resources were estimated at Rs 29,937 crore and the Planning Commission had agreed to a plan size of Rs 30,000 crore.

The statement further said it was not right to equate Gujarat’s growth rate with that of Bihar,which is very close,since Gujarat’s contribution to the national GDP is 6.7 per cent compared to a population of 4.9 per cent,while Bihar contributes 2.9 per cent against its 8.06 per cent population.