New Delhi: The contentious issue of Gross Budgetary Support (GBS) for the plan expenditure for 2003-04 may have to be resolved by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee with Planning Commission and Finance Ministry (FM) locking horns over a size exceeding Rs 1,34,000 crore.

With Finance Minister Jaswant Singh expressing inability over the size sought by the Planning Commission, sources said, Vajpayee as Commission Chairman may intervene to settle the issue.

Pant had in November 2002 written to Singh seeking a GBS of Rs 1,34,064 crore for 2003-04. However, Singh in his response expressed his inability to agree citing fiscal deficit constraints in the light of the drought, increase in minimum support prices, retention prices of food grains as also the geo-political uncertainty arising from Iraq.

Singh suggested the GBS for the plan should be benchmarked to actual amounts usefully spent in earlier years, particularly since "Centre's actual plan expenditure fell short of the Budget estimate figures during each of the years successively, for six continuous years from 1995-96 to 2000-01. This shortfall was six per cent and above for three of the six years".

In addition to this, Singh said, "We should move away from a system of 'input' monitoring to a system of 'output' evaluation in terms of criteria such as kilometres of roads and number of hospitals built.

"This output monitoring together with a mechanism that would reward projects that do well at the delivery end with additional outlays is the only way we can ensure that development goals are achieved," he said.

PTI