Bihar Quiz: Economy and State Budget of Bihar

Article 202 requires the Governor to cause a statement of the estimated receipts and expenditure of the state for every financial year, called the annual financial statement, to be laid before the House or Houses of the legislature.

Under Article 204 an Appropriation Bill is introduced after the Vidhan Sabha has voted the demands for grants, and it alone makes the withdrawal of money from the Consolidated Fund of the State lawful; no money may leave that fund except under an appropriation made by law.

A budget is classified by the relation between receipts and expenditure, which gives three kinds only: a balanced budget, in which estimated receipts equal estimated expenditure; a surplus budget, in which receipts exceed expenditure; and a deficit budget, in which expenditure exceeds receipts.

Article 267(2) allows the legislature of a state to establish a Contingency Fund of the State by law, placed at the disposal of the Governor, from which advances can be made for unforeseen expenditure pending authorisation by the legislature, the amount being recouped later through a supplementary demand.

The Bihar Reorganisation Act, 2000 created Jharkhand on 15 November 2000, and with the Chhotanagpur plateau Bihar lost its coal, iron ore, copper, bauxite and mica, along with the heavy industry at Jamshedpur, Bokaro and Ranchi.

Makhana, the gorgon nut or fox nut grown in the ponds and wetlands of the Mithila region, comes overwhelmingly from Bihar, and the produce of the region carries the geographical indication tag Mithila Makhana.

The Shahi Litchi of the Muzaffarpur belt in north Bihar received a geographical indication tag for its thin skin, small stone and high sugar content, and the district is often called the litchi capital, with the crop also grown in Vaishali, East Champaran and Samastipur.

The Barauni refinery of Indian Oil was commissioned in the 1960s at Barauni in Begusarai district with assistance from the Soviet Union, and around it grew the Barauni fertiliser plant and the Barauni thermal power station, making Begusarai the industrial hub of the state.

Bihar enforced total prohibition from 5 April 2016 and then enacted the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act, 2016, which bans the manufacture, trade, storage and consumption of liquor in the state.

The amendment that brought in the Goods and Services Tax had to be ratified by the legislatures of at least half the states.

The Bihar Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act was passed in 2006, after the central Act of 2003 and the recommendation of the Twelfth Finance Commission that states pass such laws to earn debt relief.

Bihar has a bicameral legislature, and a money bill as defined in Article 199 can be introduced only in the Vidhan Sabha, the lower House, and only on the recommendation of the Governor.