Peek into new Bihar blueprint

Nitish Kumar has promised to turn Bihar into an investors? paradise in 18 months. There is a sense of urgency and desperation in his words ? the perfect blend to make things happen.

Nitish Kumar has promised to turn Bihar into an investors’ paradise in 18 months. There is a sense of urgency and desperation in his words — the perfect blend to make things happen.

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Persistent poverty, complex social stratification, bad infrastructure and an image problem have damaged the state's growth. Not surprising, Nitish, after taking over as the CM, had said: "The situation is worse than what we had thought." His deputy Sushil Kumar Modi said: "We got empty coffers."

The new government realised it had to pull out all the stops to meet its development commitments. It knew it needed money from the investors. But before that, it had to set the house in order. It readied a two-pronged strategy.

The first part was spending the amount allocated and sanctioned for development during the current fiscal so that central funds do not have to be surrendered. This was also necessary to avoid a cut in future allocations from the Planning Commission. The other strategy was boosting internal resource generation.

At the first plan review meeting, non-plan expenditure was just 21 per cent of the allocation. To speed up execution of schemes, the cabinet on December 5 modified the rules, giving departments the power to approve schemes of up to Rs 10 crore. Earlier, schemes of Rs 25 lakh or more had to get cabinet approval. The second monthly review showed results. In just 22 days, the figure had gone up to 27 per cent.

Now officials have been asked to take decisions and not just sit over files. The government has also decided to pull up central government executing agencies for any delay in schemes.

Internal revenue remains a vital part of the picture. The effort to boost this segment hinges heavily on the strategy of "lower the taxes, higher the collection".

At a recent meet, Modi told the Bihar Chamber of Commerce and the Bihar Industries Association that if they honestly paid taxes, the government did not have any problems in giving concessions. "Invest in the state, fill the coffers and take incentives," was the new mantra.

With all this, Bihar is surely showing signs of getting there.