Bihar pushes power, education, roads

State FM Abdul Bari Siddiqui presented revenue-surplus budget, in which education, power, roads and health care got more than Rs 58,000 cr

In a bid to fulfil Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Seven Nischay (resolves), the state government allocated huge funds to education, power, roads, and health care.

State Finance Minister Abdul Bari Siddiqui presented a revenue-surplus budget, in which education, power, roads and health care got more than Rs 58,000 crore.

Out of that, education was allocated Rs 21,897 crore. With this amount, the state government plans to construct new technical educational institutions and roll out free Wi-Fi in colleges and universities.

The money will also be spent on constructing new classrooms and scholarships to promote education. The energy sector has been allocated Rs 14,378 crore for the next financial year, almost 50 per cent higher than last year's allocation.

The social welfare sector would receive an allotment of almost Rs 9,000 crore next financial year.

"Despite slowing growth at the national and international levels, Bihar has managed to clock 10.5 per cent annual growth rate in the past 10 years," said the state finance minister.

"However, the past baggage is so heavy that we need more resources to get to the national average. Instead of helping us, the central government is playing petty politics. They have reduced our share in the divisible pool and continuously refuse policy support. We are doing our level best to get back on our feet and in this attempt if the Centre extends a helping hand, we would develop at a faster rate. We have given adequate importance to social, infrastructure, and financial health."

The state government has proposed to allocate Rs 13,749 crore for the road construction sector in the next financial year, which will be used to construct new roads in rural areas. One of the "resolves" of Nitish Kumar was to provide road connectivity to every house by 2020. Health care has been given Rs 8,234 crore to build new hospitals in rural areas.

The government is yet to present Finance Bill in the Assembly. However, sources said VAT (value added tax) rates were expected to go up to compensate for the losses from partial liquor ban in the state. "We expect a loss of Rs 2,000 crore from this proposed partial ban. However, we expect to get more money through VAT hikes and increase in other taxes," said a senior finance department official. The government is expected to have a revenue surplus of Rs 14,649 crore by the end of March 2017.