Union budget of India
Encyclopedia
The Union Budget of India, referred to as the annual Financial Statement in Article 112 of the Constitution of India
Constitution of India
The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India. It lays down the framework defining fundamental political principles, establishes the structure, procedures, powers, and duties of government institutions, and sets out fundamental rights, directive principles, and the duties of citizens...

, is the annual budget of the Republic of India, presented each year on the last working day of February by the Finance Minister of India
Finance Minister of India
The Minister of Finance, also known as the Finance Minister of India is a cabinet position in the Government of India and heads the Ministry of Finance. He drafts the general budget of the country, and is in charge of the national economy. Currently, Pranab Mukherjee holds the charge of finance...

 in Parliament
Parliament of India
The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...

. The budget has to be passed by the House before it can come into effect on April 1, the start of India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

's financial year. Former Finance Minister Morarji Desai
Morarji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and the fourth Prime Minister of India from 1977–79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress...

 presented the budget eight times, the most by any.

Pre-liberalisation

The first Union budget of independent India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 was presented by R. K. Shanmukham Chetty
R. K. Shanmukham Chetty
Sir Ramasamy Chetty Kandasamy Shanmukham Chetty KCIE was an Indian lawyer, economist and politician who served as independent India's first finance minister from 1947 to 1949...

 on November 26, 1947.

The Union budgets for the fiscal years 1959-60 to 1963-64, inclusive of the interim budget for 1962-63, were presented by Morarji Desai
Morarji Desai
Morarji Ranchhodji Desai was an Indian independence activist and the fourth Prime Minister of India from 1977–79. He was the first Indian Prime Minister who did not belong to the Indian National Congress...

. On February 29 in 1964 and 1968, he became the only finance minister to present the Union budget on his birthday. Desai presented budgets that included five annual budgets, an interim budget during his first stint and one interim budget and three final budgets in his second tenure when he was both the Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister of India
Deputy Prime Minister of India
The Deputy Prime Minister of India is a member of the Indian cabinet in the Indian government. The post is not a constitutional post and seldom carries any specific powers. Generally a Deputy Prime Minister also holds other key portfolios like Home minister or Finance Minister...

.

After Desai's resignation, Indira Gandhi
Indira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...

, the then Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...

, took over the Ministry of Finance to become the only woman to hold the post of the finance minister.

Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Mukherjee
Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is the current Finance Minister of India and leader of the current Lok Sabha.Mukherjee is a senior member of the Cabinet Committees on Economic Affairs, Infrastructure, Parliamentary Affairs, Political Affairs, Prices, Security, Unique Identification Authority of India,...

, the first Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha or Council of States is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Rajya means "state," and Sabha means "assembly hall" in Sanskrit. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature,...

 member to hold the Finance portfolio, presented the annual budgets for 1982-83, 1983–84 and 1984-85.

Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi
Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...

 presented the budget for 1987-89 after V P Singh quit his government, and in the process became only the third Prime Minister to present a budget after his mother and grandfather.

N. D. Tiwary presented the budget for 1988-89, S B Chavan for 1989-90, while Madhu Dandawate presented the Union budget for 1990-91.

Dr. Manmohan Singh became the Finance Minister but presented the interim budget for 1991-92 as elections were forced.

Due to political developments, early elections were held in May 1991 following which the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...

 returned to political power and Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh
Manmohan Singh is the 13th and current Prime Minister of India. He is the only Prime Minister since Jawaharlal Nehru to return to power after completing a full five-year term. A Sikh, he is the first non-Hindu to occupy the office. Singh is also the 7th Prime Minister belonging to the Indian...

, the Finance Minister, presented the budget for 1991-92.

Post-liberalisation

Manmohan Singh, in his next annual budgets from 1992–93, opened the economy, encouraged foreign investments and reduced peak import duty from 300 plus percent to 50 percent.

After elections in 1996, a non-Congress ministry assumed office. Hence the final budget for 1996-97 was presented by P. Chidambaram
P. Chidambaram
P. Chidambaram or Chidambaram Palaniappan, sometimes written Palaniappan Chidambaram is an Indian politician with the Indian National Congress and present Union Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of India. Previously he was the Finance Minister of India from May 2004 to November 2008...

, who then belonged to Tamil Maanila Congress
Tamil Maanila Congress
The Tamil Maanila Congress was a political party in Tamil Nadu. It was started by G K Moopanar by breaking away from the Indian National Congress protesting the decision of the party high command to form an alliance with the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. After the death of Moopanar, his...

.

Following a constitutional crisis
Constitutional crisis
A constitutional crisis is a situation that the legal system's constitution or other basic principles of operation appear unable to resolve; it often results in a breakdown in the orderly operation of government...

 when the I. K. Gujral Ministry was on its way out, a special session of Parliament was convened just to pass Chidambaram's 1997-98 budget. This budget was passed without a debate.

After the general elections in March 1998 that led to the Bharatiya Janata Party
Bharatiya Janata Party
The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...

 forming the Central Government, Yashwant Sinha
Yashwant Sinha
Yashwant Sinha is an Indian politician and a former finance minister of India and foreign minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet...

, the then Finance Minister in this government, presented the interim and final budgets for 1998-99.

After general elections in 1999, Sinha again became the finance minister and presented four annual budgets from 1999-2000 to 2002-2003. Due to elections in May 2004, an interim budget was presented by Jaswant Singh
Jaswant Singh
- Career :He is one of the few Indian politicians to have been the Minister for Defence, Finance and External Affairs.He started the new government of Vajpayee, which lasted its full term, as the External Affairs Minister and later on switched his ministry to Finance with Yashwant Sinha...

.

Time of Budget Announcement

Until the year 2000, the Union Budget was announced at 5 pm on the last working day of the month of February. This practice was inherited from the Colonial Era, when the British Parliament would pass the budget in the noon followed by India in the evening of the day.

It was Mr.Yashwant Sinha
Yashwant Sinha
Yashwant Sinha is an Indian politician and a former finance minister of India and foreign minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee's cabinet...

, the then Finance Minister of India in the NDA government (led by BJP) of Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...

, who changed the ritual by announcing the 2001 Union Budget at 11 am.

See also

  • 2009 Union budget of India
    2009 Union budget of India
    The 2009 Union budget of India was presented by the Finance minister, Pranab Mukherjee on 6 July 2009.-Background:During 2008-09, the growth rate of GDP of India fell from an average of over 9% in the previous three fiscal years to 6.7 %.The wholesale price index of India also witnessed large...

  • 2010 Union budget of India
    2010 Union budget of India
    The Union budget of India for 2010-11 was presented by Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Lok Sabha on Friday, February 26, 2010. -Highlights :* The Indian economy was facing grave uncertainty...

  • 2011 Union budget of India
    2011 Union Budget of India
    The Union Budget of India for 2011-2012 was present by Pranab Mukherjee, the Finance Minister of India on 28th February, 2011. This budgetary proposals would be applicable from 1st April 2011 to 31st March 2012.- Highlights :Some salient features...

  • Government budget by country
    Government budget by country
    This article includes a chart representing revenues, expenditures and resulting deficit or surplus of government budget. The countries are ranked by budget revenues. The data is taken mainly from CIA World Factbook....


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Yearly budgets
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