Interesting facts about Budget presentation in India

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim Budget for fiscal year 2024-25 on February 1, 2024, marking her sixth consecutive budget since 2019. Other Finance Ministers with at least five consecutive Union Budget presentations include Morarji Desai, P Chidambaram, Pranab Mukherjee, Manmohan Singh, Yashwant Sinha, and Arun Jaitley.

Here are some interesting facts about the Budget presentation in India:

First Budget:

India has a 163-year-old legacy of budget presentations. The inaugural budget was introduced by Scottish economist James Wilson on April 7, 1860, during the East India Company rule. Post-independence, the first Budget was presented on November 26, 1947, by Finance Minister R.K. Shanmukham Chetty. Since Independence, there have been 75 annual budgets, 14 interim budgets, and four special budgets.

Longest and Shortest Budget Speech:

Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech, speaking for two hours and forty-two minutes on February 1, 2020. She surpassed her own record set in July 2019, speaking for 2 hours and 17 minutes. The shortest budget speech in India was delivered by Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977, comprising just 800 words.

Most Words in Budget Speech:

In 1991, then finance minister Manmohan Singh delivered the longest budget speech in terms of words, totaling 18,650 words. Arun Jaitley is second on the list with 18,604 words in his 2018 budget speech.

Most Number of Budget Presentations:

Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the most number of budgets, with ten during his tenure as finance minister from 1962 to 1969. This is followed by P Chidambaram (9), Pranab Mukherjee (8), Yashwant Sinha (8), Manmohan Singh (8), Arun Jaitley (5), and Nirmala Sitharaman (5).

Budget Timing:

In 1999, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha changed the timing of the Budget presentation to 11 am, departing from the colonial-era practice of presenting it at 5 pm on the last working day of February. In 2017, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley initiated the practice of presenting the Budget on February 1 instead of the last working day of the month.

Budget Presentation by Prime Minister:

While the Finance Minister generally presents the Union Budget, there have been instances when the Prime Minister presented it. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister to do so in 1958. In 1970, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi presented the budget when Finance Minister Morarji Desai resigned, and in 1987-88, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi presented the budget when Finance Minister VP Singh resigned.

Railway Budget:

In 2017, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley ended the 92-year-old tradition of a separate Railway Budget. The Union Cabinet decided to merge the Railway Budget with the General Budget in 2016.

Paperless Budget:

In 2023, Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first-ever paperless Budget in India, reading her speech from a tablet. In 2019, she abandoned the tradition of carrying the Budget in a briefcase, opting for the traditional 'bahi khata.' The documents were wrapped in a silk red cloth with the national emblem on top.