Planned growth of national income is crucially constrained by the availability of foreign exchange. To achieve the annual growth rate of five and a half per cent forecast for the Fourth Five-Year Plan, project and maintenance imports worth Rs 7,500 crores would be required over the five-year period ending in 1970-1, As debt repayment and service charges will total Rs 1,450 crores, foreign exchange requirements for the Fourth Plan will add up to a staggering sum of Rs 9,100 crores. The export target set at Ma 5,100 crores is, thus expected to finance no more than two-thirds of the inflow of commodity imports having a foreign exchange gap of Rs 4,000 crores.
