Focus on education in Bihar budget

Opposition describes the budget as ‘depressive and anti-poor’

Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Kumar Modi in Patna on Tuesday.

The revenue surplus budget of ₹2,00,501 crore was on Tuesday presented in the Bihar Assembly with focus on education, rural development and energy sectors.

“It’s a revenue surplus budget of ₹21,516.99 crore for the financial year 2019-20 with focus on education, energy and development in rural sectors… an amount of ₹34,798 crore is allocated for the education sector while ₹15,699 crore would go to the rural development sector. The allocation for the energy sector is ₹8,894.32 crore,” Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister Sushil Kumar Modi said after presenting the budget.

Mr. Modi added that the “sustained efforts by the government for the last few years have yielded good results in the economic growth of the State”.

The budget also has provision for opening 11 medical colleges in the State, while a substantial amount has been allocated for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, Mr. Modi said. An amount of ₹,734 crore has been allocated towards the welfare of the SCs and ₹1,565 crore towards the ST welfare in the budget.

Nine-fold increase

The development expenditure for the year 2019-20 is ₹1,43,133.73 crore and non-development expenditure ₹54,367.30 crore.

“Bihar has the highest growth rate among all States, and the budget is nine times more than that of the year 2004-05,” added Mr. Modi.

The Annual Scheme Outlay for the financial year 2019-20 is estimated at ₹1,00,000.98 crore, which is ₹8,206.25 crore more than for the year 2018-19.

The Establishment & Commitment expenditure for the financial year 2019-20 is estimated at ₹99,110.01 crore which is ₹14,437.39 crore more than for the year 2018-19.

Revenue receipts

The grants-in-aid from the Central government is estimated at ₹49,019.38 crore in 2019-20 which is ₹2,588.26 crore more than for 2018-19.

The funds for the Central Sector Schemes for the financial year 2019-20 are estimated at ₹497.03 crore. Total revenue receipt has been estimated at ₹1,76,747.64 crore in 2019-20 which is ₹18,696.23 crore more than for the year 2018-19.

However, the Opposition parties termed the budget “depressive and anti-poor”.