The Bihar government presented its 14th Economic Survey 2019-20 in the Assembly on Monday.
“With an average of over 10% growth, Bihar has registered higher growth than the growth rate of India in the last three years,” Deputy Chief Minister and State Finance Minister Sushil Kumar Modi later told journalists.
“The per capita GSDP (Gross State Domestic Product) of Bihar was ₹47,541 at current prices and ₹33,629 at constant prices. The main growth drivers of the economy in Bihar, which registered a double-digit growth and contributed towards real growth of the overall economy of Bihar during 2018-19, are air transport (36%), other services (20%), trade and repair services (17.6%), road transport (14.0%), and financial services (13.8%),” he added.
The Survey said that the “fiscal deficit of the State was 2.68% of GSDP, revenue surplus 1.34% of GSDP, and the outstanding public debt liability of the State government was 32.34% of GSDP during the year 2018-19”.
“The total revenue receipt of Bihar in 2018-19 was ₹1,31,793 crore and capital receipt was ₹20,494 crore. The revenue expenditure and the total expenditure in the state were ₹1,24,897 crore and ₹1,54,655 crore respectively…the revenue receipt increased by 12.2% whereas the revenue expenditure increased by 21.7% in 2018-19 over the previous year,” added the report.
While listing highlights of the Economic Survey report, Mr. Modi further said that “egg production has increased in the state from 111.17 crore in 2016-17 to 176.34 crore in 2018-19 and the total fish production gone up from 4.79 lakh tones in 2013-14 to 6.02 lakh tones in 2018-19”. “Similarly, the annual growth rate of operational agro-based factories in Bihar was 16.4 % over the last 10 years, compared to only 3.3 % at the all India level”, he said. The major employment generating industries, said the report, for working males in the state during 2017-18 were agriculture, forestry and fishing (44.6%), construction (17.1%), wholesale and retail trade, repair of vehicles (12.3%) and manufacturing (9.3 %) and for female workers agriculture, forestry, fishing and education have been the major employment generating industries.
“The per capita consumption of the electricity in the state has risen from 145 kwh in 2012-13 to 311 kwh in 2018-19, implying growth of 114 % in six years and the availability of power has increased from an average of 6-8 hours to 20-22 hours in rural areas and from 10-12 hours to 22-24 hours in urban areas”, Mr Modi said, while adding, “the power capacity availability in the state was 3889 MW in 2018 which increased to 4767 MW in 2019 and in order to meet the increased demand of power, the state government has also planned for additional capacity of 5335 MW from different sources in a phased manner by 2021-22”. The Economic Survey has also put focus on state government’s flagship programme of Jal-Jivan-Hariyali to “tackle issues related to climate change and environmental degradation”. “Besides, the state government has improved its budgetary allocation and operational efficiency too through CFMS (Comprehensive Financial Management System) since 2019 ”, added Mr Modi.
