Bihar tables ₹3.47L-cr budget with focus on 7-Resolves fulfilment

The finance minister said the budget had its focus on imaan, gyaan, vigyaan, armaan aur samman (faith, knowledge, science and respect) to contribute to a developed Bihar in keeping with the Nitish government’s motto of development with justice

Finance minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav, on Tuesday presented the ₹347,589 crore budget of the Nitish Kumar-led NDA government for 2026-27 in the Bihar Legislative Assembly.

Bihar finance minister Vijendra Prasad Yadav on way to present the State Budget 2026-27 at Bihar Assembly in Patna on Tuesday. (Santosh Kumar/HT)

Though the budget size is higher than the previous year’s budget by 9.685%, the hike is less than the 13.69% increase witnessed in the 2025-26 budget ahead of Bihar Assembly elections compared to 2024-25.

The finance minister said the budget had its focus on imaan, gyaan, vigyaan, armaan aur samman (faith, knowledge, science and respect) to contribute to a developed Bihar in keeping with the Nitish government’s motto of development with justice.

Lauding the vision and commitment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Nitish Kumar to make Bihar prosperous, the minister said that the state was expected to achieve the growth rate of 14.9% in 2025-26 to match India’s high growth rate and realise the objective of a developed Bihar.

“Bihar is also expecting increase in its tax revenue in 2026-27 to be around ₹65,800 crore,” the minister said, adding that the budget had made special provisions for the roll-out of the next phase of Mukhyamantri Mahila Rozgar Yojana, which proved a game changer for the NDA in the election.

The budget aims to maintain fiscal discipline by keeping the fiscal deficit at 2.99% of the state’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), which is below the 3% prescribed limit. It was 2.98% last time.

The state’s public debt has also reached 34.05% of the GSDP, though the minister said that it had been steadily on decline in the last three years. Unlike the previous election budget, there are no major announcements this time.

The scheme expenditure in the Budget is set at ₹122155.42-crore, up from ₹1,16,759.60 crore. However, the growth in the scheme expenditure has dropped significantly compared to last year, when it was 16.7% increase.

On the other hand, the establishment and commitment expenditure of the state government is estimated at ₹225,434.34-crore, up from ₹2,00,135.42 crore (12.6%), with a significant portion allocated for salary expenses due to large-scale recruitment.

The total expenses on salary is ₹70,220-crore, which is 20.4% of the total budget. It is higher than the budget allocated to any single department of the state government.

The highest departmental budget has been allocated to education, which is 17% of the total budget. However, even in education, the scheme budget is only 30.5%, while the rest is establishment and committed expenditure.

The state is also burdened with 10.1% as pension expenditure, while 7.3% goes to interest payment and 6.5% to repayment of loan. Interest payments on the state’s outstanding debt was ₹23,013.94 crore in 2025-26, which has now reached ₹25,363.7 crore.

Former head of economics department at Patna University Prof NK Choudhary said that considering the huge expectations, the Budget seems to lack the wherewithal and adequate provisions.

“The irony with Bihar is that the government has a tendency of presenting supplementary budgets. Last time also, three supplementary budgets were presented. The fiscal deficit and growing public debt are matters of concern and there is no clear comparative data to address the concerns,” he added.