Patna: A jolt for beer drinkers throughout Bihar! A dry spring is coming! Thanks to Chief Nitish Kumar, booze will be banned in Bihar. One of India’s poorest states is set to get poorer, by about Rs 4,000 crore annually.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar will stick to a promise made in July this year by announcing that prohibition would be introduced in Bihar from April 1, 2016.

“I will not step back from what I had said in a programme at SK Memorial Hall (on July 9) and I will implement it. I had spoken from my heart. Prohibition will be implemented from the next financial year beginning April 1, 2016,” the CM said at a programme to mark Prohibition Day at Adhiveshan Bhavan. The government observes November 26 as Prohibition Day as part of its efforts to curtail liquor consumption.

Mr Kumar said his decision was prompted by the concerns of rural women. The chief minister said there were two types of liquor consumers: those who drink expensive liquor and the poor who consume country liquor, which has a bad impact on their families.

“I feel that liquor consumption has a bad impact on the families of poor people, for them liquor is like poison. Poor families are being destroyed by liquor, I can understand the pain of women,” Nitish said. Women, who outnumbered men in voting turnout, are among the biggest supporters of Nitish.

Nitish’s decision found support from the opposition BJP. “We fully support total prohibition in Bihar. Country liquor as well as foreign liquor should be part of this ban,” senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi tweeted.

When Nitish took over the reins from the Lalu-Rabri regime in 2005, there were 3,000 liquor shops across the state. Today, there are 6,000.

Can Bihar afford to lose so much revenue?A prominent Bihar liquor retailer, Naval Kishore Singh, said: “In 2005, Bihar used to generate Rs 295 crore of revenue from liquor sales. The figure is expected to touch Rs 4,000 crore in 2015-16.”

In 2006, Naval Kishore explained, the government, under its new liquor policy, set up the Bihar State Beverages Corporation Limited and made it mandatory for all manufacturers to sell liquor through it. “The corporation helped keep a check on leakage. Earlier the sale of liquor was directly through distributors and wholesalers. Also, the number of liquor shops increased as the excise department started issuing licenses for the marketing of liquor,” Kishore said.

Excise contributes about 15 per cent of Bihar’s total revenue, which stands at Rs 30,875 crore for 2015-16.

Nitish, aware about the potential loss of revenue, says he wants to walk the moral high ground. “I know there will be a loss of revenue but I will do it to bring happiness on the faces of poor families. We have to face problems for two to three years, however I will adjust the loss. Some will say that liquor will come from other sources, I will tackle it when the problem arises,” Nitish said.

Bihar also briefly flirted with prohibition under Karpoori Thakur between 1977 and 1979, but the ban was lifted by the subsequent government.

Nitish directed chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and principal secretary, excise and prohibition, K.K. Pathak to start work on formulating the new policy. “I am giving you ample time to work on it, there would be contracts and agreements with suppliers to deal with, so you people do it accordingly,” Nitish said.

  Bihar, Prohibition