Patna: Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Kumar
Modi on Friday presented the Rs 65,325.87 crore annual budget in
the Assembly for 2011-12 having a marginal deficit of Rs 13.03
crore.
The state`s total expenditure has been proposed at Rs
65,325.87 crore against the proposed total receipts of Rs
65,312.84 crore, Modi, who is also Deputy Chief Minister, told
reporters here after an hour-long budget presentation in the
Assembly.
In spite of an overall deficit of Rs 13.03 crore in the
budget, the state has a proposed revenue surplus of Rs
6,272.30 crore which will be spent on the development and
welfare projects, he said.
The surplus revenue proposed in the budget for 2011-12
too has registered a slight decline of Rs 285 crore.
The state`s fiscal deficit too has increased marginally
in percentage terms of the state`s gross domestic product
(GDSP) at 2.93 per cent (Rs 6,194 crore) in 2011-12 against
2.73 per cent (Rs 45,940 crore) in 2010-11.
Modi, however, expressed confidence that the state
government will be successful in sound fiscal management in
spite of the large size of its plan, necessary loan payment
and increased revenue expenditure.
The fiscal deficit will remain within stipulated limit of
three per cent of the SGDP as prescribed by Fiscal
Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) rules prescribed
by the Centre, he added.
In an indication that road connectivity, education and
agriculture continue to be the priorities in the next fiscal
too, Road Construction, Human Resources Development and
the Water Resources departments have bagged the lion`s share
of the state plan outlay for 2011-12 at Rs 3,875, Rs 3,014 and
Rs 2,112 crore respectively, the Deputy Chief Minister said.
Among other significant proposals in the state budget,
Modi has allocated Rs 644.58 crore for a new scheme - the
Chief Minister`s Development project - for development works
in various parts of the state for which the concerned MLAs
will be required to make a recommendation for works.
In another significant budgetary proposal, Rs 299.99
crore has been provisioned in the budget for purchase of
foodgrains for distribution among those BPL families who were
deprived of the benefits under the central scheme, Modi said.
The state government has provisioned funds of Rs 210
crore and Rs 250 crore for promotion of food processing
industries and panchayat bhawans respectively, he said.
In addition, the state government has proposed funds
of Rs 126 crore, 175 crore and Rs 153 crore for the Chief
Minister`s scheme for dress to the students, grants for
bicycle for boys and grants for bicycle for girls
respectively.
The Chief Minister`s bridge construction project
has been allocated an amount of Rs 400 crore, while the
The Chief Minister`s rural approach road project has been
granted Rs 300 crore in the budget.
The Deputy Chief Minister also announced various sops for
the common man making certain foodgrains like paddy, wheat,
rice, flour and suji tax free, while the bone mill has been
included among natural fertilisers and made tax free.
The state government proposed to increase value added tax
(VAT) on certain goods in schedule three of the VAT Act, 2005,
from four to five per cent.
The VAT on various consumer goods like motor vehicle, TV,
fridge, jarda/cigarette, cement, soaps, detergent, tooth
paste/tooth brush, electrical appliances and furnitures have
been hiked from the present 12.5 per cent to 13.5 per cent.
The state government has also proposed to bring an
amendment in the motor vehicles tax fixation act to hike from
the present three per cent to five per cent on purchase of
motorcycles and car in order to raise an additional revenue of
Rs 40 crore, Modi said.
Similar, a luxury tax of 10 per cent has been imposed
on the booking of hotels, conference halls, community centres,
while the state government also proposed to hike
export/import tax on beer, Indian/foreign liquor, spicy
liquor, the Deputy Chief Minister said.
The state government has further proposed to rationalise
tax rates on various categories of heavy vehicles like trucks
in order to give incentive for more registration of such
vehicles in the state for the purpose of generation of
employment opportunities in the transport sector, he said.
PTI
