No fresh taxes in Bihar's multi-crore budget for FY ’21-22

“It is a budget to add pace to Bihar’s inclusive growth story and take development to the next stage," Prasad said on Monday.

Bihar's deputy chief minister Tar Kishore Prasad on Monday presented a budget worth ₹218,302 crore for the year 2021-22, which is ₹6,541 crore more than last year's budget estimate. This year the focus is on youth, women, agriculture, rural development, technical and skill education, and entrepreneurship development.

File photo: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. (ANI file photo)

Presenting his maiden budget, Prasad said the budget has a separate allocation of ₹4,671 crore for Bihar government's 'Seven Resolves (Part-2)' and promised the creation of over 20-lakh employment opportunities and development of skill centres and training institutes. In the 2020 Assembly election, joblessness had emerged as a big issue in Bihar.

“It is a budget to add pace to Bihar’s inclusive growth story and take development to the next stage. In the year 2020-21, the expected crisis due to the Covid-19 pandemic put the world economy under strain and Bihar was no exception. However, the way Bihar responded to the challenge at multiple levels despite its limited resources has resulted in the state barely registering around 536 active cases today. Though we still need to maintain utmost precaution,” he added.

This estimated budget expenditure includes establishment and committed expenditure of ₹117,783 crore, which is ₹11,788 crore more than last year. The scheme expenditure is estimated at ₹100,518 crore, with a lion’s share of 21.94 per cent going to education, followed by 16.78 per cent to rural development, 7.31 per cent to rural works department, 8.19 per cent to social welfare and 6.93 per cent to the health department.

Prasad said that a new department would be set up focussing on skill and entrepreneurship development. “It will include industrial training institutes (ITIs) and polytechnics and also incorporate entrepreneurship in the curriculum. Mega skill centres will be set up in every district. The youth will be encouraged to start their own enterprise and women will be given interest-free loan up to ₹5-lakh or 50 per cent of the project cost. A sum of ₹200-crore has been earmarked for the purpose,” he added.

He said that the survey for the government’s resolve to ensure water to every farm in the next five years has been completed and a sum of ₹550 crore has been added for this purpose in this year’s budgetary allocation of agriculture, energy, minor irrigation and water resources departments.

The deputy CM, who also holds the finance portfolio, said that the estimated fiscal deficit for 2021-22 was estimated to be ₹22,510 crore, which is 2.97 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP). The receipt from the state’s resources is estimated to be around ₹40,555 crore, which is just around 18.5 per cent of the total estimated budget.

However, economic experts feel that the government would find it difficult to match the estimated budgetary target, as it would depend heavily on the fiscal situation and intent of the Centre. Even in 2019-20, against the estimated budgetary estimate of ₹200,501 crore, the actual expenditure was much lower at 143,613 crore.

“The situation could be even worse during 2020-21 when India was hit by Covid-19 pandemic. Therefore, the numbers need to be seen with caution,” said the expert who did not want to be quoted.