Bihar budget swells by 8.9% to ₹2.37 lakh crore
The Bihar government on Monday presented a revenue surplus budget for coming fiscal 2022-23 with an outlay of ₹2,37,691.19 crore, a rise of 8.88% from current fiscal budget outlay of ₹2,18,302.70 crore, with an emphasis on education, health, infrastructure and energy as thrust areas.
The Bihar government on Monday presented a revenue surplus budget for coming fiscal 2022-23 with an outlay of ₹2,37,691.19 crore, a rise of 8.88% from current fiscal budget outlay of ₹2,18,302.70 crore, with an emphasis on education, health, infrastructure and energy as thrust areas.
Of the total budget outlay, ₹100,230 crore has been earmarked for annual schemes (plan) while committed expenditure (non-plan) spending has been pegged at ₹1,37,460.94 crore, a rise of ₹19,677.11 crore from current fiscal estimates of ₹1,17,783.84 crore. No new scheme was announced by the state government in the budget.
“This is a budget of Bihar’s development with emphasis on higher spending on infrastructure, health, education, agriculture and welfare of people,” deputy chief minister and finance minister Tarkishore Prasad said at a press conference after presenting the budget in both houses of the state legislature.
Prasad, who was accompanied by additional chief secretary (finance) S Siddharth, said the government had made provisions for a higher capital expenditure worth ₹45,734.52 crore. “This is a hike of ₹4503.21 crore from current fiscal year’s estimates of ₹41,231.31 crore. We are focusing on higher spending on infrastructure and industry sector in the next fiscal,” he said.
Siddharth said the revenue surplus for the next fiscal is estimated at ₹4747.84 crore, which is 0.64% of the gross state domestic product (GSDP), while the fiscal deficit is estimated to be ₹25,885.10 crore, which is 3.47% of GSDP pegged at ₹7,45,310 crore.
Revenue surplus is achieved when the total revenue receipts are higher than from the total revenue expenditure.
Going by allocations in six focus areas of spending , education sector has got highest allocation of ₹39,191 crore, followed by ₹16,134 crore on health, ₹29,749 crore on infrastructure (both urban and rural) , ₹12,375 crore on welfare, ₹7712.30 crore on agriculture and ₹1643.74 crore on industry and investment.
No hike in spend on old schemes
A closer look at the budgetary estimates indicate that the state government has not increased outlay for annual schemes.
“We are committed to completing all ongoing schemes under seven resolves phase 1 and accelerate new schemes under seven resolves phase 2. A provision of ₹5,000 crore has been made under seven resolves programme for the next fiscal,” Siddharth said, when asked why no new scheme was announced.
The seven resolves is a programme of chief minister Nitish Kumar to provide basic amenities to people like safe drinking water, higher education, power and other facilities launched in 2016.
On a query about the rising committed expenditure, the official said the government’s expenditure on salary, maintenance and other areas had increased.
Central devolutions
The budget outlay has estimated central devolutions of ₹91,180 crore for the next fiscal, nearly same as the current fiscal target. The government, however, expects central grants in aid worth ₹58,001.29 crore in the coming fiscal, ₹3470 crore more compared to the current fiscal.
In last two years, government has suffered a shortfall of ₹33,000 crore in central devolutions due to Covid- induced economic contraction.