tracing-the-trajectory-of-india-s-budget-from-james-wilson-to-nirmala-sitharaman

Budget is a commonly heard term in a layman’s day-to-day life. Adults are aware of its pros and cons. However, when the term begins to find its relevance at the state and national level, it becomes of paramount importance. Given the recent development, the budget or correctly identified as a ‘financial plan’ of the government has kept everyone hooked. 

 

It is only tomorrow (February 1) when the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will announce the interim budget of 2024 or vote-on-account budget before the country enters the election cycle. Before tracing the trajectory and relevance of Budget 2024, it will be insightful to know the journey of our finance minister. Our nation’s first woman finance minister with a full-time position, Sitharaman, has already put forth five full-fledged budgets. On Thursday, she will present her sixth budget, surpassing the records of some of her predecessors, which include Manmohan Singh, Arun Jaitley, P. Chidambaram and Yashwant Sinha— they have all presented five budgets at a stretch.

 

This time, Sitharaman will equate the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai — he has the highest number of budgets presented, which stands at 10 — who had tabled six full-term budgets, including one interim in a row.

 

While the nation looks up to the vote-on-account budget, which will authorize the present government to spend some more money, eyeing the country's development, before the new government is formed, let's take a look at how the Union Budget has evolved since Independence.

 

- When India was being ruled by the East India Company, Economist James Wilson, a Scottish, presented India’s first interim budget in 1860

 

- In 1947, independent India’s maiden budget was presented by the first Finance Minister R.K. Shanmukham Chetty. The budget focused on the scarcity of grains, inflation and an increase in imports.

 

- There has been an instance when the budget got leaked before its formal announcement. This was in 1950 when John Mathai was the Finance Minister. 

 

- Sometime between 1955-56, a bilingual approach to budget presentation was given with the document being printed and presented in both English and Hindi.   

 

- In 2001, marking a notable shift from the colonial era, announcing the budget was shifted to 11 AM from 5 PM.  

 

- Until 2016, the Budget used to be presented on the last working day of February. Former Finance Minister Jaitley in 2017 brought ahead the budget presentation date to the beginning of February. 

 

- In 2019, our present finance minister brought in ‘bahi khata’, keeping aside the traditional suitcase. Thus, ushering in a new era of the budget, for the visual narrative. This is not it, Sitharaman also made a record for delivering the longest budget speech in 2020, which was two hours and 42 minutes long.

 

This was an overall glimpse of the Union Budget. Additionally, as far as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s era is concerned, in 2014, Arun Jaitley was made the Union Finance Minister and from 2014-15 to 2018-19, he presented five budgets in a row.  

 

Piyush Goyal, who took responsibility for the ministry, given Jaitley’s ill health, presented the interim budget for 2019-20. One of the primary highlights of his budget was that he introduced a hiked standard deduction from salaried taxpayers by 10,000 to 50,000. Also, for those whose annual income does not cross Rs 5 lakh, their tax rebate was increased from Rs 2,500 to Rs 12,500.

 

It was in 2019 when Modi came to power again, Sitharaman was given charge of the finance ministry. She, henceforth, became the second woman in India’s history to present the budget and be the first Union Finance Minister of India, after former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, who had presented the budget for the financial year 1970-71.