Union Budget 2024–25: Ten Facts About India's Budget That Every Indian Citizen Must Know Of

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the interim Union Budget 2024-25 on February 1. It will be an interim Budget as the elections for the Lok Sabha are due this year. As per the rules, the new government, following the general elections, will present the full Budget for FY25. The Government presents it on the first day of February so that it can be materialised before the beginning of the new financial year in April. Until 2016, it was presented on the last working day of February. In this article, let’s take a look at some interesting facts about the Union Budget of India. Union Budget 2024-25 Date and Time: Know All About the Day When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman Will Present the Interim Budget.

A Look At Some Interesting Facts About The Union Budget

1. The tradition of presenting the Union Budget in India dates back to 1860 when the East India Company introduced the budgetary system.
2. Until 1999, the Union Budget was announced at 5 pm on the last working day of the month of February, a practice inherited from the colonial era.
3. 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. The tradition started in 2001.
4. 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, Arun Jaitley, announced that it will now be presented on February 1 every year.
5. The printing of budget documents starts around a week before the Budget Day with a customary 'Halwa ceremony'. Halwa (a sweet dish) is prepared in large quantities and served to the officers and staff. The halwa is served by the Finance Minister.
6. The Budget documents remain isolated and stay in the North Block office until the Budget is presented.
7. The ‘Lock-in’ is a period of a number of days that 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.
8. Until 2018, Finance ministers carried the budget in a leather briefcase. The tradition was established by the first Finance minister of India, R. K. Shanmukham Chetty. In 2019, Nirmala Sitharaman broke the tradition by carrying the budget in a Bahi-Khata.
9. On February 1, 2021, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first paperless budget, where she took a digital tablet wrapped in a traditional 'bahi-khata' style pouch.
10. Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record for delivering the longest speech of two hours and 42 minutes, while presenting the 2020-21 Union Budget on February 1, 2020. She broke her own record for July 2019 - her maiden Budget.

The Rail Budget, which was presented separately for 92 years, has been merged with the union budget. The Union Budget of India is also referred to as the Annual Financial Statement in Article 112 of the Constitution of India.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 22, 2024 07:03 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).