The Nitish Kumar government in Bihar on Tuesday tabled a Rs 2.79 lakh crore budget, asserting that the state's finances were in "good shape" with the growth rate standing well above 10 per cent, the "highest" in the country.

Presenting the budget before the state assembly, Deputy Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary said it was a matter of pride for Bihar that its growth rate at "10.64 per cent" was also much higher than the national average.

“We are committed to the state’s overall development. We succeeded in pulling out 2.5 crore people from the clutches of poverty in the current financial year”, asserted Choudhary who holds the finance portfolio.

He presented the budget amid a ruckus created by members of the opposition, who trooped into the well and later staged a walkout, shouting slogans like “palturam hosh mein aao (Mr turncoat, come back to your senses)".

Notably, the budget was presented a day after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who dumped the RJD-helmed 'Mahagathbandhan' and returned to the BJP-led NDA, won a trust vote.

Choudhary also counted among the state’s major achievements a marked decline in maternity deaths, saying it has “fallen by 47 per cent, which is remarkable by all standards”.

The state’s budget estimate for the next fiscal was Rs 2,78,725.72 crore, an increase of Rs 16,840 crore, compared with the current financial year.

Out of the total expenditure, Rs one lakh crore was earmarked for “annual scheme outlay” with the largest share (22.20 per cent) reserved for the education department, followed by rural development (13.84 per cent).

The estimated expenditure on health has been pegged at 7.41 per cent of the annual scheme outlay, while 1.88 per cent will be kept for “backward classes and most backward classes welfare”.

Although the budget document asserted that the state’s finances “were in good shape”, it admitted that fiscal deficit, at 5.97 per cent of the GSDP, was way above “the prescribed conditional limit of 3.5 per cent”.

However, in the next financial year, “the state is again likely to generate a revenue surplus and fiscal deficit is likely to be contained at 2.98 per cent of state GDP, that is within the FRBM limits of three per cent”.

The Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003 sets a target for the government to establish financial discipline in the economy.

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