Patna: Chief minister Nitish Kumar's cabinet on Monday gave state government employees reason to cheer by raising the home loan limit to Rs 25 lakh from the existing Rs 10 lakh.

It also increased the house expansion advance limit to Rs 10 lakh from the current Rs 1.8 lakh.

The decision was taken at a cabinet meeting chaired by Nitish at the secretariat and the housing advance or loan limits are now in tandem with similar advances given by the Union government to its employees, limits for which are revised from time to time.

At present, employees have to pay 8.5 per cent interest on home loans to the state government, which is 0.5 to 1 per cent less than what banks and housing finance agencies charge.

Cabinet secretariat department principal secretary Arun Kumar Singh said the government employees will also be given Rs 50,000 advance to buy computers - five times during their entire service tenure - on the lines of the central government.

"In a related decision, the advances given to state government and Bihar judicial service officials to buy cars and motorcycles have been stopped just like it has been done by the Centre," Arun added.

Finance secretary (expenditure) Rahul Singh told The Telegraph that the last revision of housing advance for government employees was done in 2002-03 and the need to revise it was being felt. Normally, the Centre revises the limits every 10 years.

The cabinet also approved the Bihar District Minerals Foundation Rules, 2018, proposed by the mines and geology department. Under this, an additional tax will be imposed on those who purchase minerals, including sand and stone.

"The money thus collected will go to a common pool and will be spent on the welfare of workers engaged in the mining of minerals. The rate of tax has not yet been decided and a decision in this regard will be taken separately," Arun said.

The cabinet also approved the decision taken on the assets and liabilities of Bihar State Industrial Development Corporation (BSIDC) between Bihar and Jharkhand as per the discussions between the two governments.

Industries department principal secretary S. Siddharth said the assets in Jharkhand will be transferred to its government or any agency authorised by it while the assets in Bihar will be transferred to the Bihar government or any agency authorised by it.

"The cut-off date has been fixed at March 31 this year. The liabilities will be divided in proportion to the assets' valuation between the two states," Siddharth added.

The cabinet, which discussed 15 agendas on Monday, approved the proposal made by the information technology (IT) department for free transfer of land on a 30-year lease to the Centre to open Software Technology Park of India (STPI) branch at Darbhanga and National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) in Muzaffarpur.

Also, a proposal to construct 43.35-km road between Ghogha-Panjwara road under Bihar State Highway III Project at a cost of Rs 376.85 crore.

Similarly, Rs 145.51 crore will be spent on widening and strengthening of Rahmatpara to Shitalpur Road in Kishanganj and Rs 44.62 crore will be spent on widening and strengthening of Benipatti-Umgaon Road in Madhubani.

A rail police station will be established at Hilsa railway station and 97 posts have also been created.