Patna,(BiharTimes): State finance minister Bijendra Yadav on Thursday presented a budget with revenue surplus of Rs 11,980.95 crore.The 2015-16 budget paid special attention to education, electricity and social welfare as the Assembly election is due later this year.

It earmarked Rs 22,027 crore for education, while energy sector amd social welfare have got Rs 8,436.90 crore and Rs 4,179.20 crore respectively.The backward caste & the most backward caste welfare has got Rs 1,975.30 crore and SC/ST welfare Rs 1,497.52 crore.The state government has set a target of 9.29 per cent increase in total receipts of Rs 1,20,914.40 crore. Revenue receipts are pegged at Rs 1,03,189.06 crore, while the revenue expenditure is projected at Rs 91,208.11 crore, giving a surplus of Rs 11,980.95 crore.

The capital receipts are pegged at Rs 17,725.33 crore.According to the finance minister the surplus revenue at the disposal of the state government would be used for investment in physical infrastructure to generate productive capital assets like roads, buildings, schools, electricity, health centres and irrigation.

The total receipts of Rs 1,20,914.40 crore consists tax revenue of Rs 81,622.58 crore, which is up by 21.03 per cent from last fiscal.The state would receive Rs 50,747.58 crore from its share of central taxes in next financial year, up by 21.48 per cent from last year.

The minister said that the state’s own taxes would grow by 20.31 per cent to Rs 30,875 crore.The state will receive Rs 18,170.63 crore in grants-in-aid from the central government, down by 42.17 per cent from 2014-15 budget estimates.

On the expenditure side, the total non-plan expenditure has been projected to rise by 6.80 per cent to 63,259.59 crore.At Rs 57,425.73 crore the plan expenditure is estimated to be almost the same as the last year.The total expenditure is of Rs 1,21,154.33 crore. The revenue expenditure will be 75 per cent, while capital expenditure will be around 25 per cent.

The state government has also succeeded in containing its fiscal deficit at 2.98 per cent of the state’s GSDP which is estimated to be Rs 45,5451 crore in the next fiscal.Interest payment too has been contained at seven per cent of the total revenue receipt.

Rs 299.38 crore has been allocated for minority welfare, while Rs 6,821.11 crore for rural works and Rs 5,795.06 for road construction.The rural development department has been given Rs 5,216.06 crore, while Rs 4,971.67 crore has been earmarked for the health sector.

The Panchayati Raj department has been allocated Rs 4,364.32 crore, while agriculture department has been given Rs 2,833.24 crore.
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