Bihar Budget 2019: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Bihar government on Tuesday announced its budget for the state for the financial year 2019-20 in the legislative assembly. Presenting his tenth budget, Bihar Finance Minister-cum- Deputy CM- Sushil Modi said that the government has given top priority to the education sector in its Budget for 2019-20. Modi announced a highest-ever allocation of Rs 34,798.69 crore in education with no new taxes for its citizens. In the previous financial year, budget allocation was Rs 32,125.64 crore. During his budget presentation, Modi claimed that Bihar has achieved highest growth rate among all the states and the amount allocated for this budget i.e. Rs 2 lakh crore is nine times more than the budget of 2004-05.

The Bihar Finance Minister also accorded top priority to roads, health, energy and police departments besides laying emphasis on 12 departments associated with "agriculture roadmap" such as agriculture, cooperative, rural development etc., reported news agency PTI.

FM Modi also said that except for the financial year 2012-13, the state has been presenting a revenue surplus budget consistently since 2008-09 adding that the state had a revenue surplus of Rs 14,823 crore in 2017-18 and Rs 21,311 crore in 2018-19 while it is expected to be Rs 21,516 crore in 2019-20.

Here are some major highlights from Bihar Finance Minister Sushil Modi’s Budget speech:

1. The total budget allocated for the financial year 2019-20 stands at Rs 200,501.01 crore. Out of the total, Rs 101,391 crore would be spent on implementation of the various scheme announced by the government.

2. The total revenue receipt collected by the state government is estimated to be Rs 176,747.64 crore.

3. Bihar’s fiscal deficit has been estimated at Rs 16,101.05 crore in the budget, which is 2.81 per cent of the gross state domestic product (GSDP) estimated at Rs 5,72,827.00 crore.

4. Total allocation to the education sector stands at Rs 34,798 crore whereas the energy sector has been allocated a fund of Rs 8,894 crore.

5. Nitish Kumar government allocated a total amount of Rs 2,958.77 crore for Agriculture department for in 2019-20 fiscal, which is 1.48 per cent of Budget estimates.

6. The government also intends to create a separate agriculture feeder for providing irrigation facility to every field by the end of December 2019 with an outlay of Rs 5,823 crore for the purpose.

7. Modi also stated that the state government plans to construct 2210 km roads in 2019-2010. The total allocation towards road construction and rural works department stands at Rs 17,923 crore.

8. The FM also announced an allocation of Rs 9,622.76 crore for health sector adding that as many as even new medical colleges will be set up by both Central and State governments.

9. Modi said the government has achieved its target of providing electricity to all households in over 39,000 villages of the state, much before the deadline of December 2018.

10. The Bihar government has also given priority to the social sector by putting the welfare of scheduled caste, scheduled tribe, backward class, extremely backward class, women and minorities in the foreground of its agenda.