The COVID-19 pandemic led to a significant change in India’s Union Budget process, making the 2021 and 2022 Union Budgets paperless for the first time in Independent India. This shift was part of the government's move to embrace digitalization and reduce physical paperwork. Prior to 1999, the Union Budget was traditionally presented at 5 PM on the last working day of February, a practice dating back to the British era. However, former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha changed the timing to 11 AM in 1999. Arun Jaitley further modified the budget presentation date in 2017, moving it to February 1. Another key change occurred before 1955, when the Union Budget was presented solely in English. The Congress-led government later decided to print the budget papers in both Hindi and English, reflecting the country’s linguistic diversity.