The Budget, like the previous year, is expected to be paperless keeping in view the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is all set to present her third Budget in Parliament on Tuesday (February 1, 2021). Ahead of Budget presentation, expectations are already building up for what could be in store for the common man. The Budget, like the previous year, is expected to be paperless keeping in view the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Here are eight interesting facts about India’s Union Budget:
1) So far Morarji Desai has presented 10 Union Budgets in Parliament which is the highest by a single finance minister followed by former FM P. Chidambaram (9), former FM Pranab Mukherjee (8), former FM Yashwant Sinha (8), and former FM Manmohan Singh (6)
2) In the year 2017, the Rail Budget was merged with the Union Budget. Also, since the said year, the Budget has been presented on 1 February following the changes introduced by the then Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
3) Until 1955, the Union Budget was presented in English. After that year, the Congress-led government decided to print the Budget papers in both Hindi and English.
4) The first independent budget of India was presented by RK Shanmukhan Chetty on November 26, 1947.
5) Railway and union budget was presented separately till 2017 after which they merged into a single presentation.
6) In 2019, Sitharaman ditched the traditional Budget briefcase, instead, she carried a Red packet with the National Emblem wrapped with a ribbon.
7) Indira Gandhi was the first woman finance minister to present the Budget in 1970, followed by Nirmala Sitharaman in 2019.
8) It was introduced on 7 April 1860 by the East India Company to the British Crown. It was presented by a Scottish Economist and politician James Wilson. He established weekly magazine “The Economist”.
It is worth mentioning, that in the year 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman replaced the standard Budget briefcase with the traditional ‘Bahi Khata’ with the National Emblem. And, it was only in the last year that for the first time in Independent India’s history, the Budget for FY 2021-22 is paperless. This was done keeping in view the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
