Budget 2019: With India inching closer to the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP)-led NDA government’s last budget aka Interim Budget 2019 due on 1 st February 2019, here’s a low down on past 5 Interim Budgets in India that were delivered by the outgoing governments’ Finance Ministers and were seized as an opportunity to attract voters with the plan ahead if they make a comeback.

Interim Budget 1996:

Dr Manmohan Singh presented the Interim Budget 1996-97 on behalf of Congress. The then Finance Minister began his speech by reporting how far the P V Narasimha Rao government had come during its tenure, “Five years ago, the people of India gave a mandate to our Party, under the courageous and far-sighted leadership of Prime Minister Shri P.V. Narasimha Rao. We took office at a time when the economy was on the brink of collapse.

Inflation was out of control, exports were declining, foreign exchange reserves had declined to no more than two week’s imports and industry was virtually crippled. We had to give the highest priority to restoring macroeconomic stability and then, as quickly as possible, to bring the economy back to a path of rapid and equitable economic growth.”

Dr Singh accepted that though all not that they set out for was achieved, however, their approach has been the right one, “The journey of the past five years has been both difficult and rewarding. I would not say that we have achieved all that we wanted. But, I believe we can honestly say that the results we have achieved amply vindicate our approach and aspirations.”

Dr Manmohan Singh hinted the populace of the country to vote again for the Congress by saying, “this is the last session of the present Lok Sabha. Soon, our people will be called upon to exercise their sovereign democratic right to choose the next Government.

Undoubtedly, their choice will have a profound bearing on the future of our polity and the well being of our children and our grandchildren. Time and again, the Indian people have shown that they can be relied upon to make sound and sensible decisions. I have every reason to believe that when the time comes, our people will be discriminating enough to recognise the friendly hand that alone can help our nation to move forward on the road to peace and prosperity and preserve its unity and integrity.”

Interim Budget 1998:

Yashwant Sinha had presented Interim Budget 1998. “This Interim Budget is being presented for the purpose of a Vote-on-Account to enable the Government to carry on its business and meet essential expenditure during the first four months of the next financial year. The Demands for Grants and the Annual Financial Statement, which are for the full financial year, will be revised and finalised at the time of presentation of the Regular Budget in a few weeks time. I shall also introduce a Finance Bill today, which merely seeks to continue the existing tax structure for a full year,” stated Sinha.

The then Finance Minister had reported slouching overall economic growth at 5% in the year 1997-98 apart from negative growth in key sectors like agriculture, industry and exports citing “bottlenecks in key infrastructure sectors,” lacklustre capital market and abysmal fiscal condition.

Sinha had fully assured the house to address these issues in the Regular Budget 1998 with newly devised strategy that will “impart the necessary stimulus to agriculture and industry, restore dynamism to exports, encourage larger flows of foreign investment in line with the National Agenda for Governance. He also assured to take decisive initiatives to improve the state of infrastructure, strengthen the financial system, accelerate the reform of the public sector while building a strong and transparent system for PSU disinvestments.

Sinha concluded his Interim Budget 1998 speech by saying, “I would like to assure the Hon’ble Members of this august House that I shall make every effort in my Regular Budget to implement the economic goals enunciated in our National Agenda for Governance."

Economic reforms will be deepened, broadened and accelerated. Our goal is to make India an economically strong and vibrant nation which will participate in the world economy with confidence and from a position of strength. We are determined to build an India in which there is no place for hunger, poverty, unemployment and deprivation.”

Interim Budget 2004-2005:

Jaswant Singh presented the Interim Budget 2004 for the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government, in which the FM boasted about India’s best macro-economic situation in the past fifty years. Jaswant Singh spoke about controlled inflation and growing GDP, “With inflation at 4 to 4.5 per cent, this year we expect the growth rate of our GDP to be between 7.5 and 8 per cent. Though there are higher growth estimates that have been made, for the present, we prefer to remain with the cited figures. This level of growth is a matter of great satisfaction.”

The Finance Minister further affirmed that “a combination of moderate inflation, declining interest rates, and healthy capital markets has set our economy on the path of accelerated growth. To further encourage this is our responsibility. Preserving the strength of our macroeconomic fundamentals have, therefore, to be much more focused. Management of the economy is a continuing responsibility, governance can neither pause nor cease, and measures to fully consolidate, and continuously enhance the growth momentum must always be adopted in time. Only in that manner can we realise the vision of economic and
social progress that we have cherished since independence.”

Interim Budget 2009-10:

Then FM Pranab Mukherjee delivered Interim Budget 2009 for the Congress-led UPA government and began his budget speech by saying, “Five years ago the people of India had voted for change. In the words of our Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, people had sought “a change in the manner in which this country is run, a change in the national priorities and a change in the processes and focus of the Government.”

The FM presenting his government’s report card and said, “For the first four years of the UPA government, our policies ensured a dream run for the economy with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) recording increase of 7.5 per cent, 9.5 per cent, 9.7 per cent and 9 per cent from the fiscal year 2004-05 to 2007-08. For the first time, the Indian economy showed sustained growth of over 9 per cent for three consecutive years. With per capita income growing at 7.4 per cent per annum, this represented the fastest ever improvement in living standards over a four year period.”

Pranab Mukherjee concluded his Interim Budget 2009 pitch with “our people will soon be called upon to exercise their democratic right to choose the next Government. The Indian people have repeatedly shown that they can be relied upon to make sound decisions to secure the nation’s future. They have seen how the ‘Aam Aadmi’ has become the focus of the development process. They have also seen how our Government has successfully steered the country through difficult times.

They have experienced the joy of being citizens of a proud nation moving ahead with confidence. I have no doubt that when the time comes, our people will recognize the hand that made it all possible. The hand that alone can help our nation on the road to peace and prosperity.”

Interim Budget 2014-15

P Chidambaram’s Interim Budget 2014 speech was different from his predecessor as he began by saying, “As I prepared to write this speech, I found that whether it is a regular Budget for the full year or an interim Budget, some things remain the same.” PC further added, “Within days of my return to the Ministry of Finance, I had declared that our objectives were fiscal consolidation, price stability, self-sufficiency in food, reviving the growth cycle, enhancing investments, promoting manufacturing, encouraging exports, quickening the pace of implementation of projects, and finding practical solutions to certain stressed sectors such as petroleum, power, coal, highways and textiles.”

In his concluding lines, P Chidambaram assured the country that “Our way of governance has not come in the way of lifting 140 million people out of poverty in the last ten years. That is the greatest achievement of the UPA Governments, and we are proud of the achievement.”