Bihar's 'first' Economic Survey Report tabled
[ 7 Mar, 2007 0209hrs ISTTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]


PATNA: For the first time in the annals of Bihar legislature, the
state government on Tuesday tabled the Status Report on Economic
Survey of Bihar 2006-07 in the Legislative Assembly.

Never before did any state government come out with the survey
document which contains factual information about the state's economy.

"Such a paper would also pave way for a public dialogue for attaining
the goal of good governance," deputy CM and state finance minister
Sushil K Modi said, adding it would now onwards be an annual exercise
ahead of the presentation of state budget.

The 2006-07 report indicates Bihar has lagged behind other states on
all the developmental indices. The state ranks at the bottom with
respect to Human Development Indicator (HDI) with the HDI for Bihar
being about 20 per cent lower than the national HDI.

The survey noted the market size in Bihar is estimated to be worth Rs
1,03,600 crore or 4.8 per cent of the country's market size. It has a
lower CD ratio than the national average, and despite some improvement
it is still one of the lowest in the country. A highly disadvantaged
economy is a general phenomenon in Bihar although it is not equally
present in all the districts, the report said. The per capita income
varies widely between Rs 6,958 (in Patna) to Rs 2,219 (in Sheohar).

Having an estimated 90.2 million population (83 million as per 2001
census), the state has 536.91 lakh people living below poverty line
(BPL). This when the number of BPL families has reduced at the
national level with the national BPL percentage being 19.34 only.

The state's total debt, about Rs 42,000 crore, constitutes 71 per cent
of its Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP). The revenue account had a
deficit during the three years between 2001-02 and 2003-04, implying
that the funds meant for capital expenditure had to be diverted to the
revenue account. However, this deficit turned into surplus from
2004-05 onwards.

Similarly, the Gross Fiscal Deficit (GFD) has been consistently high
in recent years. In recent years, the state government's internal
market borrowings financed its GFD apart from the Public Accounts
receipts. The state's development expenditure constituted an average
of about 60 per cent of its total expenditure, but its share has
declined from 67 per cent in 2001-02 to 56 per cent in 2006-07. The
state's own revenue, both tax and non-tax, barely meets 20 per cent of
its total expenditure and the rest has to come from the Centre.

The state has a workforce of 4,35,394 as against the sanctioned
strength of 5,71,722. One fifth are grade IV and three fourth are
grade III employees. The salary and pension constitute the two most
important expenditure items. The total expenditure on salary and
allowances of these employees was Rs 5,783.35 crore which is projected
to go up to Rs 7,800 crore during 2006-07. The government spends 46
per cent of its total resources on salary and pension alone.

Interestingly, Bihar is among the best paymasters. The average annual
salary of a state government employee is Rs 1.8 lakh as against the
average Rs 1.21 lakh of a Central government employee. Even
"developed" states in the country pay less than what Bihar pays, the
report noted.