Union budget of India

Until the year 1999, the Union Budget was announced at 5:00 pm on the last working day of the month of February. This practice was inherited from the colonial era. Actual agenda behind this tradition was that, it gives Britishers the time of 11:30 am, a relax time at their location. This clearly shows their colonial era mindset they had left on Indian politicians.Another reason was that until the 1990s, all that budgets seem to do was to raise taxes, a presentation in the evening gave producers and the tax collecting agencies the night to work out the change in prices.

It was Yashwant Sinha, the then Finance Minister of India in the NDA government (led by Bharatiya Janata Party) under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who changed the ritual by announcing the 1999 Union Budget at 11 am.[6] The tradition started from 2001.

Also again in 2017, departing from the colonial-era tradition of presenting the Union Budget on the last working day of February the then Minister of Finance (India) Arun Jaitley, in the NDA government (led by Bharatiya Janata Party) of Narendra Modi announced that it will now be presented on 1 February.[7]

The Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at the Halwa ceremony to mark the commencement of Budget printing process

The printing of budget documents starts roughly one week ahead of presenting in the Parliament with a customary 'Halwa ceremony' in which Halwa (a sweet dish) is prepared in large quantities and served to the officers and support staff involved. They remain isolated and stay in the North Block office until the Budget is presented. The halwa is served by the Finance Minister. This ceremony is performed as a part of the Indian tradition of having something sweet before starting an important work.[8]

Union Finance Minister giving final touches from his desktop to the General Budget 2006-07.

‘Lock-in’ is a period of a number of days which exists to maintain the secrecy of the Budget. The Halwa ceremony begins the “lock-in” period of finance ministry staff in the Budget Press located in the ministry’s headquarters in the North Block. They can emerge only once the Finance Minister completes her Budget speech on 1 February.

Previously, this “lock-in” period – when officials cannot be in contact with the outside world – would be longer. Since 2021, however, the Budget has been presented in a purely digital format, and the lock-in period has gotten shorter.

The basement of North Block houses a printing press that was traditionally used to print budget documents for 40 years from 1980 to 2020. Thereafter, the budget went digital with bare minimum documents printed and the bulk distribution happening via mobile app or on the website.

Going digital also meant that the lock-in period has gotten shorter to just five days from the previous one that lasted up to two weeks.

Another tradition is the pre-budget speech of the President.[9] In picture the President being led in a ceremonial procession to the Central Hall of the Parliament to address the Budget Session, 2005.

Until 2018, as a part of tradition, Finance ministers carried the budget in a leather briefcase. The tradition was established by the first Finance minister of India, R. K. Shanmukham Chetty.

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  The Finance Minister with the budget briefcase, 2011

Finance Minister with Digital Bahi-Khata

On 5 July 2019, Nirmala Sitharaman, broke the above tradition by carrying the budget in a Bahi-Khata.[10] On 1 February 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first paperless budget. She took a digital tablet wrapped in a tradition 'bahi-khata' style pouch. It is considered a move to strengthen Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious Digital India mission.

FM handover the Union Budget to the President to get assent

As per established tradition, the Finance Minister meet the President at the Rashtrapati Bhavan to get assent from President before heading to the Parliament to present the Union Budget.

Cabinet Meeting in Sansad

A meeting of the Union Cabinet is held at 10a.m. on February 1 . After getting the nod from the cabinet, Finance Minister present the Union Budget in Parliament of India.

The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs address a Post Budget Press Conference along with Ministers of State for Finance, Finance Secretary and all the other Secretaries of the Ministry of Finance to address the Media about announcements made during Budget speech and answer the queries

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  Union Minister for Finance addressing a Post Budget Press Conference, in New Delhi
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  Press Meet at National Media Center New Delhi

The Union Minister for Finance addressing the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India in its customary post- budget meeting, in New Delhi

Finance Minister address the Reserve Bank of India's central board of Directors and highlight key points of the Union Budget and highlight key points of the Union Budget, including the fiscal consolidation roadmap and high capital expenditure plan. The finance minister also discuss the announcements made during the budget speech.

It is customary for the finance minister to address the Reserve Bank of India board after the budget.

Dr. John Matthai, Finance Minister, Government of India has a final glance at the budget proposals before delivering his budget speech in the Parliament, in February 1949

The first union budget of independent India was presented by R. K. Shanmukham Chetty on 26 November 1947. Total revenues stood at ₹171.15 crore, and the fiscal deficit was ₹24.59 crore. The total expenditure was estimated at ₹197.29 crore with Defence expenditure at ₹92.74 crore.

The union budgets for the fiscal years 1959–61 to 1963–64, inclusive of the interim budget for 1962–63, were presented by Morarji Desai. On 29 February in 1964 and 1968, he became the only finance minister to present the Union budget on his birthday.[12] Desai presented budgets that included five annual budgets and an interim budget during his first term and three final budgets and one interim budget in his second tenure when he was both the Finance Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister of India. After Desai's resignation, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, took over the Ministry of Finance to become the first woman to hold the post of the Finance Minister.

Hirubhai M. Patel, presented the shortest budget speech for the interim budget of 1977, which was mere 800 words long.[13] Pranab Mukherjee, the first Rajya Sabha member to hold the Finance portfolio, presented the annual budgets for the financial years 1982–83, 1983–84 and 1984–85. Rajiv Gandhi presented the budget for 1987–89, after V. P. Singh quit his government, and in the process became the third Prime Minister to present a budget after his mother and grandfather. N. D. Tiwari 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 and 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 returned to political power and Manmohan Singh, the Finance Minister, presented the budget for 1991–92.

Manmohan Singh under P. V. Narasimha Rao, in his next annual budgets from 1992 to 1993, opened the economy,[14] 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 financial budget for 1996-97 was presented by P. Chidambaram, who then belonged to Tamil Maanila Congress. Following a constitutional crisis 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 forming the Central Government, Yashwant Sinha, 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.

The Union Budget of India for 2012–2013 was presented by Pranab Mukherjee, on 16 March 2012, which was the 7th budget of his career. These budgetary proposals would be applicable for financial year 1 April 2012 to 31 March 2013. The Union Budget of India for 2013–2014 was presented by P. Chidambaram on 28 February 2013. The Interim Union Budget for 2014–2015 was presented on 17 February 2014.[15] The Union Budget of India for 2014–2019 was presented by Arun Jaitley.[16][17] The Interim Union Budget for 2019–2020 was presented by Piyush Goyal.[18] The Union Budget for 2019–2023 was presented by Nirmala Sitharaman.[19][20]

Morarji Desai has presented 10 budgets which is the highest count followed by P Chidambaram's 9 and Pranab Mukherjee's 8. Yashwant Sinha, Yashwantrao Chavan and C.D. Deshmukh have presented 7 budgets each while Manmohan Singh and T.T. Krishnamachari have presented 6 budgets, Nirmala Sitharaman has presented 5 budgets.[4]

Notes:
¹During Deshmukh's tenure the Budget papers were prepared in Hindi as well for the first time.[21]
²Morarji Desai presented eight annual and two interim budgets.[21]