Bihar Budget On Tuesday: Nitish Kumar’s Budget To Focus On Employment, Education

The Bihar state annual budget will be tabled in the state assembly on Tuesday. The state’s budget session began with the address by the governor Rajendra Vishwanath Arlekar on Monday. The Nitish Kumar government’s budget is expected to highly bank on education and employment, two issues which the government has been often pulled up by the opposition. 

According to sources, the Bihar government’s annual budget is expected to be around Rs 2.75 lakh crore, which will be 15 per cent higher than the last fiscal’s budget. The current financial year saw a budget of Rs 2.37 lakh crore.

The budget for establishment is expected to rise from the current Rs 1.37 lakh crore to Rs 1.70 lakh crore. 

The budget is also expected to focus on providing employment and creating jobs in the state. In recent years, according to some reports, Bihar unemployment rate has fluctuated substantially in recent months and it tended to decrease through the February 2022 - January 2023 period ending at 11.87 per cent last month. 

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, in his address to the state on Independence day last year, had promised 20 lakh new jobs to the youth of the state. Unemployment has been a major issue in the state and opposition parties including the RJD have often seen pulling the Nitish Kumar government up.  

The state government is also expected to increase the budget for industrial development to Rs 2500 crore. Currently, this budget is at Rs 1643.74 crore. 

The government is also expected to increase allocation for employment schemes like PMEGP, Mukhyamantri Udyami Yojna and Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro Food Processing Enterprises Scheme.