Bihar State Budget 2024-25

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary, who is also the Finance Minister, on 13/02/2024 presented the ₹2.79 lakh crore Budget in the State Assembly.
The Budget has put maximum focus on education, rural development, social welfare, rural works and health sectors.
The total outlay for the 2024-25 budget stands at Rs 2,78,725.72 crore, a hike of Rs 16,840 crore (6.43%) over the current fiscal outlay of Rs 2,61.885.40 crore.
The state’s GSDP (gross state domestic product) for fiscal 2024-25 is estimated at Rs 9,76,514 crore, against Rs 8,58,928 crore in the current fiscal, which means an assumed growth rate of 13.69% in the nominal GSDP.
Education (Rs 52,639 crore) , home (Rs 16,323.83 crore) , road (Rs 15235.12 crore), health (Rs 14,932 crore) and rural development department (Rs 14,296 crore) are the five departments with highest allocations, together accounting for 40.7% of the total outlay among over 40 departments in the state government.
The budget for financial year 2024-25 will have a revenue surplus of Rs 1,121.41 crore.
However, the budget estimates in annual schemes and committed expenditure for fiscal 2024-25 reflect a substantially swollen salary bill and less money for development works.
The annual scheme outlay (funds for development works) for 2024-25 is estimated at Rs 100,000 crore, same as 2023-24, while the establishment and committed expenditure (salaries, pension, establishment, payment of loan interest) is estimated at Rs 1,78,706.09 crore, which is Rs 16,850.42 crore more than Rs 1,61,855.67 crore for 2023-24 budget estimates.
There is a 30.3% increase in the salary component in the budget for 2024-25 over the current fiscal budget, which could pose a challenge for the government in meeting the growing expenditure due to ongoing and fresh recruitments.
In 2023-24, the estimated salary bill is Rs 31,118.70 crore, which is pegged at Rs 40,559 crore for the next fiscal.
The fiscal deficit, one of the key indicators of fiscal health, is projected at Rs 29,095.42 crore, which stands at 2.98% of the state gross domestic product( GSDP) for 2024-25 and well within the prescribed limit of 3% of GSDP.
There were alarming signs of the fiscal limit breaching the prescribed limits. As per budget data, the fiscal deficit was 5.97 percent of GSDP during 2022-23.
Bihar would get estimated Rs 1,22,685.76 crore as state’s share in central taxes for 2024-25.
As per estimates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the economic growth rate was estimated at 7.24% for India and 10. 64% for Bihar, which makes it the fastest growing state.
Bihar’s outstanding debt at the end of 2024-25 is estimated at 2.98 lakh crore, 30.51% of the GSDP.