Patna, Feb. 3: The Bihar government has written a letter to the Union finance ministry seeking details on the basis of which the Centre arrived at the conclusion that the state can take Rs 6,342 crore as debt in the coming fiscal (2011-12).

“The state has sought clarification as according to its calculation Bihar can take a debt of Rs 7,222 crore in the coming fiscal year,” deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi, who also holds the finance portfolio, told reporters today.

There is one more point of difference on which the Bihar government’s letter has sought clarification from the Centre. It pertains to the estimates of the share of Bihar in the central taxes during 2011-12.

According to the estimates of the Bihar government, the state would get Rs 26,852 crore under this head, whereas the Centre is of the opinion that the state would get Rs 26,109 crore under this head.

The Centre’s estimates may put a break on the Bihar government’s plan of having annual plan size of Rs 24,000 crore as announced by the government in the past.

The plan size of Bihar for 2010-11 was Rs 20,000 crore.

“We need to clarify these points as the state government wants to have a bigger plan size as so much development work has to be carried out for making Bihar a developed state,” Modi said.

The final figure for the plan size is decided by the Planning Commission and it holds meeting with the state governments concerned before finalising the figures.

Modi said that given the development work done by the NDA government of Bihar over the past five years, the Planning Commission should take the state’s stand into consideration and allow it to have a plan size of Rs 24,000 crore.

There is one more point which Bihar wants the Centre to look into. It deals with the upper limit of loan which the Bihar government can take from other agencies.

“Bihar is of the opinion that the Centre should allow states to take loans up to 4 per cent of their gross state domestic product as loan. I have already brought this demand to the notice of Union finance minister P Chidambaram,” Modi said.

According to the provisions of Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act, states at present can take up to 3 per cent of the value of their gross state domestic product as loan. Bihar raised a loan of Rs 5,670 crore in 2010-11 using the same provision of the act.