The Budget presentation timing was changed in 1999 when the then FM Yashwant Singh in the Vajpayee govt presented the budget at 11 am. Earlier, it used to be at 5pm aligning to day time in UK

1st Budget Of Modi 3.0

• NDA govt’s Budget presentation in 3rd term
• Morarji Desai holds record for most budgets (10)
• P Chidambaram presented Budget on 9 occasions
• Pranab Mukherjee presented 8 budgets

New Delhi: Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman is set to create history when she presents her seventh straight Budget on Tuesday for the fiscal 2024-25, surpassing the record of former Prime Minister Morarji Desai.

Sitharaman, who will turn 65 next month, was in 2019 appointed as India’s first full-time woman finance minister when Prime Minister NarendraModi won a decisive second term. Since then, she has presented six straight budgets, including an interim one in February this year. The full Budget for the 2024-25 fiscal (April 2024 to March 2025) will be her seventh straight. She will better Desai’s record, who presented consecutive five full budgets and one interim budget between 1959 to 1964. This year will witness two budgets - an interim one in February and a full one this month. This is because an incumbent government can’t present a full Budget just before general elections.

The presentation on July 23 (tomorrow) will be the first Budget by the BJP-led NDA government since it was re-elected last month.

Here are some facts related to Budget presentation in Independent India:

First Budget: The first-ever Union Budget of independent India was presented on November 26, 1947, by the nation’s first finance minister RK ShanmukhamChetty.

Most number of budgets: Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the most budgets. He has presented a total of 10 budgets during his tenure as finance minister under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and later under Prime Minister LalBahadurShastri.

2ndhighest number of budgets: Former finance minister P Chidambaram presented the budget on nine occasions.

Economic Survey to be tabled today

Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman will table the Economic Survey in Parliament today(July 22), a day ahead of the Union Budget, which will be a report card on the economy and also the growth outlook ahead.

The survey gives a detailed account of the state of the economy, prospects and policy challenges. It is prepared by a team led by chief economic adviser V AnanthaNageswaran.

The Economic Survey provides statistical information and analysis on various sectors of the economy as well as data on employment, GDP growth, inflation, and the budget deficit.

India has retained its tag as the fastest-growing economy, and the economic survey will be presented at a time when the IMF has just raised its economic growth forecast for the country for FY25 to 7 per cent from 6.8 per cent projected in April.

In June, the Reserve Bank of India revised the growth forecast to 7.2 from 7 per cent.

The RBI sees India moving ahead towards an 8 per cent GDP growth trajectory on a sustained basis, driven by structural economic reforms such as GST.