PATNA, Feb. 27 -- On the penultimate day of the Bihar Assembly Budget session, six bills were passed on Thursday including those on regulating microfinance institutions and small loan providers and arbitrary fees in private professional educational institutions. Introducing the Bihar Micro Finance Institutions (Regulations of Money Lending and Prevention of Coercive Actions) Bill, 2026 bill, state finance minister Bijendra Yadav stated that its purpose is to regulate microfinance institutions and small loan providers, prevent unethical recovery, and ensure transparent and fair loan operations. After discussion, the House approved it. The Bihar Micro Finance Institutions (Regulations of Money Lending and Prevention of Coercive Actions) Bill, 2026, aims to regulate micro-finance institutions (MFI) and small loan providers (SLP) operating in Bihar, prohibit coercive and unethical recovery practices, ensure transparent lending operations with fair interest rates, protect vulnerable borrowers from exploitation through comprehensive safeguards, and establish effective mechanisms for dispute resolution and borrower relief while maintaining a balanced regulatory framework that promotes financial inclusion. Microfinance companies will be required to obtain permission from the state government's Finance Department before beginning loan disbursements in Bihar. Despite obtaining a license from the Reserve Bank of India, state-level registration will be required. Furthermore, special courts will be established in each district to hear cases involving people forced to commit suicide due to the burden of debt. These special courts will be presided over by a first-class judicial magistrate. Tabling the Bill, finance minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said the Bill would protect the interests of self help groups (SHGs) and relieve them from the undue hardship by regulating money lending transactions by the money lending MFIs, who provide loans to SHGs with unfairly high interest rates and resort to coercive means of recovery resulting in impoverishment and at times leading to suicides of the borrowers. "It will also apply to all individuals, partnership firms, limited liability partnerships, companies, societies, trusts, digital lending platforms, mobile applications, and any other entities or persons engaged in the business of advancing micro loans or small loans within the territorial limits of Bihar, irrespective of their place of incorporation, registration, or domicile. Significantly, it also brings under its purview digital lending platforms," said the minister. The Bill also makes registration of money lending entity mandatory within 90 day of the commencement of the Act. Without Certificate of Registration, vaid for there years, they cannot grant any loan or recover any loan. They have to prominently display effective rate of interest charged in all its offices, its website, and in the prospectus or brochure or advertisement notices. They have to maintain office in Bihar and ensure written loan agreement in Hindi. The Director of Institutional Finance has been assigned the responsibility of the nodal officer. After obtaining a license from the Reserve Bank of India, microfinance companies must register with the Director of Institutional Finance before starting operations in Bihar. The registration process will be completed within 90 days after document verification. Starting a business in the state without registration will be considered a criminal offence. The House also passed another important Bill aimed at curbing arbitrary fees in private professional educational institutions. The Bihar Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Enrollment and Fee Determination) Bill, 2026, passed by the Assembly on Thursday will regulate the fees charged by students under various heads in all private professional educational institutions in the state. A high-level committee will be formed to determine fees from enrolment to examination. . It will soon be published in the gazette and implemented in the state, said minister-in-charge Shravan Kumar while introducing the Bill in the House. The bill states that a law is being enacted to regulate the enrollment and tuition fees charged by private professional educational institutions, ensuring that such fees are fair, non-exploitative, and transparent, while also safeguarding the financial stability and autonomy of the institutions. The Supreme Court has called for a statutory framework to regulate fees in such institutions. This mandates regulation of fees charged by private professional educational institutions in the state. The chairperson will be a renowned academician or retired official not below the rank of Principal Secretary. Its members will include individuals with expertise in the field of medicine, experts in professional education (excluding medical education), chartered accountants nominated by the Health Department, and eminent independent individuals nominated by the Health Department. The Principal Secretary-Secretary of the Health, Higher Education, and Science and Technology Departments will be ex-officio members. The Committee will determine tuition, library, laboratory, computer, caution money, examination, and hostel fees, along with other fees determined by the Committee or directed and recommended by the State Government as a statutory authority. The State Government will notify the professional courses covered by the Committee. No fee will be charged by the institution or by any person in charge of or responsible for the management of the institution for admission to or continuation in a course....