Although Bihar is far behind other states in almost all development indices, its government employees are much better paid than their counterparts at the Centre and even developed states such as Punjab.
The average salary of a Bihar government employee is Rs 14,989 a month, while that of a central government employee is Rs 10,104 a month and in Punjab it is Rs 12,180 a month.
While Bihar's own revenue barely meets 20 per cent of its total expenditure and the rest comes from the central government, the state government employees are better off as the state spends as much as 46 per cent of its total resources on their salaries and pensions.
These were among some of the findings of Bihar's first ever economic survey for 2006-07.
The survey, entitled Status Report on Economic Survey of Bihar 2006-07, was tabled in the State Assembly by Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi.
The Bihar government's current workforce is 4,35,394 against the sanctioned strength of 5,71,722 in 2006-07.
In 2005-06, the state government spent a total of Rs 5,783.35 crore (Rs 57.83 billion)
in paying the salaries and allowances of its employees. The amount is projected to reach Rs 7831.25 crore (Rs 78.31 billion) in 2006-07.
As the government has embarked on a massive recruitment and vacancy filling drive in various departments, the salary and pensions bill is set to increase substantially.
The survey, conducted by the Patna-based Asian Development Research Institute for the state government, also estimated the state's market size to be worth Rs 1,03,600 crore (Rs 1,036 billion), which is 4.8 per cent of the national market size.
Per capita income of the 90.2 million people in the state varies between the highest Rs 6,958 in Patna and the lowest Rs 2,219 in Sheohar district.
Bihar's total loans as per the 2006-07 budget estimates stood at Rs 47,473 crore (Rs 474.73 billion) against Rs 43,153 crore (Rs 431.53 billion) in the previous year, said the survey report.
