By Priyanka Deshpande
CNBC-TV18.com
Published Jan 30, 2024
With the Union Budget 2024 just two days away, here’s a look at some interesting facts about India’s budget.
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India's first-ever Budget was announced on April 7, 1860, in pre-independent India. James Wilson of the East India Company presented it to the British Crown.
RK Shanmukham Chetty presented the first Union Budget of independent India on November 26, 1947.
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Morarji Desai holds the record of presenting the highest number of Union Budget’s. He presented 10 Budget’s – 8 annual and 2 interim Budget’s.
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In 2017, the Rail Budget was merged with the Union Budget. Earlier, the Railway Budget was presented every year, a few days before the Union Budget.
Until 1999, the Union Budget was announced at 5 pm on the last working day of February. Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha changed it to 11 am.
Image: Wiki Commons
Till 2016, the Union Budget was presented on the last working day of February Former FM (Late) Arun Jaitley changed it to February 1 in 2017.
Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi are the only Prime Ministers to have presented a Budget.
The lock-in that follows the ‘halwa ceremony’ is observed to maintain secrecy around the budget.
Ex-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his stint as Finance Minister, delivered the longest budget speech in terms of word count (18,650 words) in 1991.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the longest budget speech. She spoke for 2.42 hours while presenting the Union Budget 2020.
The Union Budget was leaked in the year 1950. Till then the budget was printed at Rashtrapati Bhavan. After the leak, it had to be shifted to a press at the Minto Road in New Delhi. In 1980, a government press was set up in the North Block's basement.
On 1 February 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first paperless budget. This was done due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in India.