Deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi at the pre-budget consultation meeting in Patna on Monday. Picture by Deepak Kumar

Patna, Feb. 13: A decline in collection of central taxes pool has set the alarm bells ringing in Bihar as the deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi today expressed apprehension that the state may get Rs 2,000 crore less from the central taxes pool in the current fiscal.

“The state was supposed to receive Rs 28,805 crore as share in central taxes in the current financial year. But now it may get Rs 2,000 crore less from the pool as the collection of central taxes is feared to miss its target. The clear picture would, however, emerge only at the end of March,” Modi, who holds the finance portfolio, told reporters after the third pre-budget consultation meeting. The less allocation of share in central taxes may force the state government to revise its plan outlay, he said.

The state got Rs 23,978 crore from the central taxes pool in 2010-11, whereas Rs 18,202 crore in 2009-10, he said.

Modi, who was accompanied by finance department principal secretary Rameshwar Singh, said the Centre had expected a growth of 20 per cent in central taxes collection in the current fiscal, while the Planning Commission projected a growth of 15 per cent for the 2012-13 financial year.

He added: “We prepared a plan outlay of Rs 28,000 crore keeping in mind a 15 per cent growth in collection of central taxes owing to fall in industrial growth and recession.”

Responding to a query on whether or not the state government could spend just 50 per cent of its plan outlay in the current fiscal, Modi termed it “quite normal and natural” as both the revenue expenditure and the collection pick up the momentum in the last quarter of the fiscal i.e. from January to March.

The state may also get another Rs 2,000 crore from Jharkhand on account of pension payment once the ministry of home affairs gives its decision, he added.

Modi, who held today’s meeting with economists, doctors, intellectuals and others, said the state government, which has for the first time, solicited the views and suggestions of the common man in the budget-making process, received about 200 suggestions by post and e-mail. Some of the suggestions have poured in from people living in the US, the UK and Germany, Modi said, adding that all these suggestions would help the government prepare its budget.

The government will also present its gender budget, outcome budget and presentation on urban local bodies and panchayati raj institutions, giving details of the amount spent by these institutions, Modi said.