Bihar Assembly passes Vote-on-Account

The House passed the Bihar Appropriation (Vote-on-Account) Bill, 2014 by a voice-vote after Speaker Uday Narayan Chaudhary put it for voting by the members at the fag end of the business of the day.

Though, the passage of the Vote-on-Account was marred by the BJP members who staged a walkout from the House minutes before Finance Minister In-Charge Vijay Kumar Chaudhary stood up to reply to debate on it.

The BJP members-led by the Leader of Opposition Nand Kishore Yadav, trooped out of the House slamming Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for not introducing the crucial Financial Bill himself in his capacity as the Finance Minister.

Replying to the debate on the Vote-on-Account, Chaudhary defended the state government’s decision to seek the legislative Assembly’s permission for withdrawal of funds from the treasury to meet its expenditure for four months as a debate on the full-fledged budget of Rs 116.886 crore for 2014-15 was not possible due to short duration of the Budget session.

In view of the general elections knocking at the doors, it was not practical to convene a long session of the state legislature to discuss and pass department-wise budget for the next fiscal as all political parties and their members will be busy in preparations for the Lok Sabha polls, he said.

The debate on the full-fledged budget will take place sometimes after the conclusion of the general elections later this year, Chaudhary said.

The minister mounted a frontal attack on the BJP for questioning the Nitish Kumar government’s performance on the economic front saying that the state economy under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been growing in steady manner.

“It is for the first time in Bihar’s history that the state budget has been put at Rs 116,886.16 crore for the next fiscal to make it over four-fold increase from Rs 26,328.67 crore for the year 2005-06,” the Finance Minister In-Charge said.

Similarly, the state’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) has grown over four-fold at Rs 308,639.60 crore in 2012-13 as against Rs 82,490.20 crore in 2005-06, he said.

Bihar’s tax revenue too has increased by 22.42 percent at an estimated Rs 25,662.95 crore in 2014-15 from Rs 20,962.70 crore in last fiscal, Chaudhary said, adding that it has been because of prudent fiscal management that the state government has been able to increase its spending on development over the years.

He said that the state government has presented a revenue surplus budget of Rs 10,174 crore for next fiscal which points to robust economic and financial condition of Bihar.

Courtesy: Jagran Post