BPSC 70th CCE Prelims General Studies · Question 115 of 143

Correct — C, Shri Samrat Choudhary. PRS Legislative Research's analysis of the budget opens with the fact in a single line: 'The Finance Minister of Bihar, Mr Samrat Chaudhary, presented the Budget for the state for the financial year 2024-25 on February 13, 2024.' He did so as Deputy Chief Minister holding the Finance portfolio, an office he took when the National Democratic Alliance government was formed in Bihar in late January 2024, weeks before the budget session. The budget itself is worth knowing in outline, because BPSC returns to these figures. Bihar's Gross State Domestic Product for 2024-25 was projected at Rs 9.76 lakh crore at current prices, a growth of 13.5 per cent over the previous year. Expenditure excluding debt repayment was estimated at Rs 2,56,333 crore, with a further Rs 22,393 crore of debt to be repaid, so the headline budget size widely reported was about Rs 2.79 lakh crore. Receipts other than borrowings were put at Rs 2,27,238 crore, a revenue surplus of Rs 1,121 crore was projected, equal to 0.1 per cent of GSDP, and the fiscal deficit was targeted at exactly the 3 per cent of GSDP ceiling, or Rs 29,095 crore. Policy announcements included the extension of the Jeevika self-help group programme into urban areas and a grant of two lakh rupees for poor households setting up a small business, with an outlay of Rs 1,000 crore. The name to keep straight is the one in option (d): Vijay Kumar Choudhary was Finance Minister in the previous government and presented the 2023-24 budget on 28 February 2023, so the correct answer changed between two consecutive budgets while two very similar names stayed on the page.

• (a)Shri Nitish Kumar — Chief Minister, not Finance Minister, and the two roles are separate in Bihar. The budget is presented by the minister holding the finance portfolio, and only a Chief Minister who also keeps that portfolio presents it himself. The option works purely on name recognition, which is what makes it the default wrong answer for a candidate who follows Bihar politics only loosely.
• (b)Shri Vijay Sinha — The other Deputy Chief Minister in the same government formed in January 2024, which is exactly why he is here. Bihar had two Deputy Chief Ministers at the time, and only one of them held Finance. Holding a deputy chief ministership carries no budget function on its own; the portfolio does.
• (d)Shri Vijay Kumar Choudhary — The sharpest distractor on the paper, because he is a genuine former Finance Minister of Bihar and his surname is almost the answer's. PRS records him presenting the 2023-24 budget on 28 February 2023, in the previous Mahagathbandhan government. He is the right answer to the same question asked one year earlier, and the wrong answer to this one.

A state budget is not a speech but a constitutional document. Article 202 requires the Governor to cause an annual financial statement of estimated receipts and expenditure to be laid before the legislature for every financial year, and in practice the minister in charge of finance presents it on the Governor's behalf. The statement separates expenditure charged on the Consolidated Fund of the State — items such as the Governor's emoluments and the salaries of High Court judges, which are not voted on — from expenditure that must be submitted to the Assembly as demands for grants. Only the Legislative Assembly votes those demands; in a bicameral state such as Bihar the Legislative Council can discuss the budget but cannot vote it, because a money bill originates only in the Assembly and the Council may hold it no longer than fourteen days. After the demands are voted, an Appropriation Bill authorises withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund, and a Finance Bill gives effect to tax proposals. That sequence explains why the question specifies 'in the State Assembly': the Assembly is the only House with financial authority.

Current-affairs questions about who did what in a named year are decided by fixing the date first, and this one turns on a change of government. The budget for 2024-25 was presented on 13 February 2024, only weeks after a new ministry took office in Bihar in late January 2024, and the finance portfolio changed hands in that reshuffle. So a candidate who last checked the position during the 2023-24 budget will answer with the previous incumbent — and that previous incumbent is deliberately printed as option (d) with a near-identical surname. The general rule to take away is that whenever a state has changed government within about a year of the event in the stem, the office-holder question is almost certainly testing the change rather than the office. A second, cheaper filter also works here. Two of the four options can be removed on constitutional grounds alone without any knowledge of Bihar's politics: the Chief Minister presents the budget only if he also holds finance, and a Deputy Chief Minister presents it only if he holds finance. The office that presents a budget is Finance Minister, and nothing else, which reduces the question to identifying which of the two Choudhurys held that portfolio in February 2024.

• PRS Legislative Research: 'The Finance Minister of Bihar, Mr Samrat Chaudhary, presented the Budget for the state for the financial year 2024-25 on February 13, 2024'
• Bihar's GSDP for 2024-25 was projected at Rs 9.76 lakh crore at current prices, a growth of 13.5 per cent over the previous year
• Expenditure excluding debt repayment was estimated at Rs 2,56,333 crore, with debt repayment of a further Rs 22,393 crore; receipts other than borrowings were Rs 2,27,238 crore
• A revenue surplus of Rs 1,121 crore (0.1 per cent of GSDP) was projected and the fiscal deficit was targeted at 3 per cent of GSDP, or Rs 29,095 crore
• The previous year's budget, for 2023-24, was presented by Finance Minister Vijay Kumar Choudhary on 28 February 2023, when the GSDP projection was Rs 8.59 lakh crore
• Samrat Chaudhary presented the following budget too, for 2025-26, on 3 March 2025, when the GSDP projection had risen to Rs 10.97 lakh crore

• Assuming the Chief Minister presents the budget; the presenting officer is whoever holds the finance portfolio
• Answering with the previous year's Finance Minister when a government changed between the two budgets
• Confusing the two similarly named ministers — Samrat Choudhary presented 2024-25, Vijay Kumar Choudhary presented 2023-24

BPSC sets at least one current-affairs question a year on who held a named Bihar office at a named moment, and the option set is always four real Bihar politicians, often two with the same surname, so the year in the stem is the whole question. UPSC never asks who presented a budget; it asks the procedure instead — which House a money bill may originate in, what counts as charged expenditure, how the deficits are defined — so the same syllabus is tested as constitutional and fiscal grammar.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Under which Article of the Constitution is the annual financial statement of a State laid before its legislature ?

  • (a)Article 112
  • (b)Article 202
  • (c)Article 266
  • (d)Article 280

  Answer(b) Article 202 — Article 112 is the Union counterpart, Article 266 deals with the Consolidated and Public Accounts, and Article 280 with the Finance Commission.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  The Bihar Budget for 2024-25 targeted a fiscal deficit of what proportion of GSDP ?

  • (a)2%
  • (b)3%
  • (c)4%
  • (d)5%

  Answer(b) 3% — Rs 29,095 crore, exactly at the permitted ceiling, alongside a projected revenue surplus of Rs 1,121 crore.