Patna। The annual budget presented by the Union Finance Minister in Parliament today on 1-02-2025 for the financial year 2025-26 has been seen by the members of the Bihar Industries Association as a visionary budget which will promote development in all sectors in the country. Expressing his reaction on the budget, the President of the Association, Mr. KPS Keshri said that this budget is a very commendable budget in the context of the country and Bihar, because on one hand the development of all sectors like infrastructure, agriculture, health, industry, employment and young women, tourism etc. has been kept in mind in the budget, while many special announcements have also been made in the budget for Bihar. Bihar Industries Association has been demanding the establishment of a new green field airport in the state for a long time, which has been announced by the Honorable Finance Minister in her budget speech. Along with this, under the ‘UDAN’ program, there is an announcement of setting up 120 new regional airports across the country. We hope that under UDAN program, some new regional airports will be made available to the state. Mr. Keshri further said that we had suggested to enhance the capital expenditure in the state to accelerate the pace of development so that the state can become a developed state of India. The government has made a provision of capital expenditure of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the budget, under which the state governments can take interest free loan for up to 50 years. Now it is the responsibility of the state government to make a plan to take advantage of this provision and send the proposal to the central government. We also appreciate the announcement of financial assistance for the Western Koshi Canal will be helpful in the development of Mithila region of the state, which is constantly facing the brunt of floods. Expressing his reaction on the budget, the General Secretary of the Association, Mr. Amarnath Jaiswal said, it is appreciable that the MSMEs are declared second engine of development in the country. Many provisions have been made for the MSME sector in the budget such as the limit of credit guarantee scheme has been increased from 5 crores to 10 crores, which has been a constant demand of Bihar Industries Association and last year when the Honorable Union Finance Minister had visited the association, we had also placed this demand at that time. Similarly, the investment and turnover limit fixed for MSMEs has been increased, due to which the coverage of MSMEs has increased further. With this, more entrepreneurs will now be able to take advantage of the facility related to MSMEs. The establishment of National Institute of Food Technology and Makhana Board for Bihar will strengthen the agriculture and food processing sector of the State.
The Treasurer of the Association, Mr. Arvind Kumar ji has appreciated the provision made in the Tax Sector in the budget, under which the limit of exemption in income tax has been increased to 12 lakhs, the set limit for TDS and TCS deduction has been increased, and the fiscal deficit has been kept at 4.4 percent of GDP. With the increase in the limit of income tax exemption, the middle class will now be in a position to spend more, which will boost the demand and benefit the economy.
The former President of the Association, Shri Arun Agarwal, while giving his reaction, said that certainly some special provisions have been made for Bihar in the budget, but the state of Bihar is far behind the national average on most parameters of development. On many parameters, it is one-fourth of the national average. The Honorable Prime Minister has set the target of a developed India by the year 2047. In this context, Bihar also needs to reach at part to the national average by the year 2047 to which Bihar was expecting more from the central government.
The former President of the Association, Shri Ram Lal Khetan, while praising the provisions of the budget, said that the announcement in the budget for health related sector is commendable. There is an announcement of giving exemption in many types of taxes on medicines of cancer and many other lifesaving medicines, which will benefit the needy a lot. This year, it has been announced that 10 thousand seats will be increased for medical education, and the same will be increased to 75 thousand in the next 5 years. This will increase the availability of doctors to the people in the country.
