Bihar presents Rs 2.6 lakh crore budget, focuses on employment, health & education

Patna, Mar 1 (KNN) The Bihar government on Tuesday presented a Rs 2.61 lakh crore ‘revenue surplus Budget’ for 2023-24, an increase of nearly 10 per cent from the previous year.

Tabling the Budget, Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary pointed out that the state government in this budget is giving special emphasis to employment, health and education sectors.

The state government in the budget announced Rs 5,540 crore allocation for Patna Medical College and Hospital's (PMCH) redevelopment, 21 Sadar hospitals to be upgraded, nine new medical colleges to be constructed across Bihar and an allocation of Rs 40 crore for reconstruction of madrassas amongst others.

A total of Rs 50 crore has also been allotted for the girl cycle programme, Rs 100 crore for outfits, and Rs 400 crore has been set aside for the girl child’s upliftment.

Appointment of 522 teachers to engineering colleges, along with a proposal to give new career options outside of teaching was also announced.

During the budget presentation, Choudhary stated that the government will be working on creating more jobs in the field of police, teachers and other government fields. “The government has already begin to create new jobs through the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), Bihar Technical Service Commission (BTSC) and Bihar Staff Selection Commission (BSSC),” he said.

As per reports, the state government aims to create over 10 lakh jobs in the state.

Talking about the decreased fiscal deficit, the finance minister said, “the fiscal deficit remained at 3.78 per cent of the State Gross Domestic Product (SGDP), which is under the prescribed conditional limit of 4.5 per cent.”

The Budget also pointed out that the grants-in-aid expected from the Centre for the current fiscal year was estimated at Rs 53,377.92 crore, which was Rs 4,623.37 crore less than what was received in the previous fiscal year.

However, the Budget noted a slight increase in the State’s share in Central taxes which was at Rs 1, 02,737.26 crore for 2023-24 and had been Rs 376.12 crore more than the previous year.

The CM Nitish Kumar led government also for a special status for the state.  (KNN Bureau)