India’s Union Budget: 14 Facts You Never Knew

  • Blog|Income Tax|
  • 2 Min Read
  • By Taxmann
  • |
  • Last Updated on 6 December, 2022

Union Budget Facts:

As we all know that the Union Budget, 2018 will be presented on February 1, 2018 by the Finance Minister, Mr Arun Jaitely. Before that, we have compiled some lesser known facts about the history of Indian Budget.
 
1: The first Indian Budget was presented by Mr James Wilson on February 18, 1869 after Indian Budget was introduced on April 7, 1860 by the East India Company.
 
2: The first Budget of Independent India was presented by the then Finance Minister, Mr RK Shanmukham Chetty on November 26, 1947.
 
3: Till 1955, Budget was only printed in English language. However, from 1955-56, budget started getting printed in both languages, Hindi and English.
 
4: In the British Era, the Budget used to be presented at 5 PM. This practice was discontinued in the year 2001 by presenting the Budget at 11 AM.
 
5: Until 2017, the ritual was to present the Budget on the last working day of the February. From last 2 years, Budget is now presented on the first working day of the February.
 
 
6: Mr KC Neogy and Mr HN Bahuguna were the only two Finance Ministers who did not present any Indian Budget.
 
7: Employees involved in the printing process of budget are kept in absolute isolation for one week prior to the presentation of budget.
 
8: The record of presenting maximum number of Budgets is held by Shri Morarji Desai for presenting 10 Budgets.
 
9: The President of India fixes the date of presentation of Budget.
 
10: First female Prime Minister of India, Mrs Indira Gandhi holds several records under name. She is the only female Finance Minister in the history of India. And, the only Prime Minister to present the Budget while serving as the Prime Minister.
 
11: For the first time in 92 years, Union Budget of 2017 merged the Union Budget with the Rail Budget, which was usually presented separately.
 
12: The Budget presentation is preceded by a Halwa ceremony wherein a sweet dish is served to the officers and staff involved in the printing of the budget documents.
 
13: Transfer Pricing Regulations were first introduced by the then Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha in Budget 2001-02. This regulation played a big role in the prevention of erosion of the tax base in India.
 
14: The Union Budget 2018-19 would be the last full budget of the BJP-led NDA government before the 2019 General Elections.
 
 

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