Bihar’s Rs20,000 crore plan size gets panel nod

The Planning Commission has approved Bihar's plan size of Rs 20,000 crore for 2010-11 fiscal, which is 39 per cent higher than its annual plan outlay of Rs14,404.65 crore for 2009-10. It was finalised on Monday after chief minister Nitish Kumar met plan panel deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

Out of Rs20,000 crore, the state government's own fund is Rs8,619.02 crore and its borrowing is Rs5,510.00 crore, which comes to 71 per cent, while the central assistance is Rs 5,870.98 crore or 29 per cent of the plan size.

''There is lot of improvement in the Plan utilisation and visible efforts have been made to improve economic activity and revenue generation," Ahluwalia said, and complemented Kumar for better performance on key development and economic parameters. Last year the state fell only marginally short of utilising its full plan allocation.

Attention, however, is required to improve social and physical infrastructure, he pointed out, adding public private partnership has to be encouraged to further accelerate pace of development in the state. Bihar's economy has grown at a rapid pace in recent years. The rate of growth of Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) at constant prices has been 12.8 per cent between 2004 and 2009, as per the latest Central Statistical Office figures. The per capita income of the state in 2005-06 was Rs8,804, which almost doubled to Rs16,177 in 2009-10.

The chief minister told plan panel that there has been remarkable progress in the financial management of the state. The state's revenue surplus has grown from Rs81 crore in 2005-06 to Rs4,700 crore in 2009-10 while the state tax revenue has grown from Rs3,561 crore to Rs8,274 crore during same period. Debt to GSDP percentage has come down from 43.39 per cent to 29.79 per cent.

The state claimed that its performance under MNREGS has shown steady progress in both employment generation and utilization of funds. The commission's attention was drawn towards the meagre amount released under PMGSY, which is not commensurate with the actual requirement.