Budget Facts: India's Union Budget Was Once Leaked Out! Know 10 Interesting Facts

The Union Budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year is set to release on February 1 while the Budget session of Parliament begins on January 29. Read 10 interesting facts related to the budget here.

File Photo: Getty Images

New Delhi: The Union Budget for the 2021-22 fiscal year is set to release on February 1. It will be especially significant to see what the union government plans to do to bring the country’s economy back on track after the Coronavirus pandemic hit an already serious economic situation.

What Is A Budget?

The union budget is an annual financial statement that provides details of the estimated expenditure and expected revenues for the government in the forthcoming financial year which begins in April and ends in March.

On an annual basis, Finance Minister presents the budget prepared by the concerned department of economic affairs.

Interesting Facts Related To India’s Union Budget:

1. The first-ever Indian budget was presented by James Wilson, a Scottish economist and politician in 1860.
2. The first budget of independent India was presented by RK Shanmukhan Chetty on November 26, 1947.
3. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister to present the budget. He briefly held the post of Finance Minister in 1958-59.
4. The government budget was once leaked! Until 1950, the Union Budget was printed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan when it got leaked. After the leak, the venue was moved to a government press on Minto Road in Delhi. Then a government press was set up in the North Block in the year 1980.
5. Until 1955, the union budget was presented in English. After that year, the Congress-led government decided to print the budget in both Hindi and English.
6. Moraji Desai presented the maximum number of budgets (10) between 1962-69 during his tenure as the finance minister.
7. The 1973-74 budget is known as the ‘Black Budget’ in India. In that period, the budget deficit reached Rs 550 crore.
8. In 2001, the time for presenting the budget was changed to 11 am by then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha. Until 2000, the budget was presented at 5 pm on the last working day of February.
9. Arun Jaitley set the record of delivering the longest budget speech as his address was 2.5 hours long in 2014.
10. On July 5, 2019, Nirmala Sitharaman became the second woman finance minister to presented the budget, the first being former PM Indira Gandhi who did it back in 1970-71 as the Union Finance Minister.

The Budget session of Parliament this year will begin on January 29 and Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is slated to present the Union Budget on February 1.