Union Budget Of India - India Budget

The Union Budget of India, also referred to as the Annual financial statement in the Article 112 of the Constitution of India, is the annual budget of the Republic of India. The Government presents it on the first day of February so that it could be materialized before the commencement of new financial year in April. Till 2016 it was presented on the last working day of February by the Finance Minister of India in Parliament. The budget, which is presented by means of the Finance bill and the Appropriation bill has to be passed by both the Houses before it can come into effect from April 1, the start of India's financial year.

An Interim Budget is not the same as a 'Vote on Account'. While a 'Vote on Account' deals only with the expenditure side of the government's budget, an Interim Budget is a complete set of accounts, including both expenditure and receipts. An Interim Budget gives the complete financial statement, very similar to a full Budget. While the law does not debar the Union government from introducing tax changes, normally during an election year, successive governments have avoided making any major changes in income tax laws during an Interim Budget.

Chronology

Pre-liberalisation

The first Union budget of independent India was presented by R. K. Shanmukham Chetty on November 26, 1947.

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 February 29 in 1964 and 1968, he became the only finance minister to present the Union budget on his birthday. Desai presented budgets that included five annual budgets and an interim budget during his first stint 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 only woman to hold the post of the Finance Minister.

Pranab Mukherjee, the first Rajya Sabha member to hold the Finance portfolio, presented the annual budgets for the financial years 1982-83, 1983â€"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.

Post-liberalisation

Manmohan Singh under P. V. Narasimha Rao, in his next annual budgets from 1992â€"93, opened the economy, 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.

Former Finance Minister Morarji Desai presented the budget ten times, the most by any.

The Union Budget of India for 2012â€"2013 was presented by Pranab Mukherjee, the Finance Minister of India 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 2013â€"2014 was presented by P. Chidambaram on 28 February 2013. The Interim Union Budget for 2014â€"2015 was presented on February 17, 2014.

The Union Budget of India for 2014â€"2015 was presented by Arun Jaitley on 10 July 2014.

The Union Budget of India for 2015â€"2016 was presented by Arun Jaitley on 28 February 2015.

The Union Budget of India for 2016â€"2017 was presented by Arun Jaitley on 29 February 2016.

Traditions

Time of Budget announcement

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, when the British Parliament would pass the budget in the noon followed by India in the evening of the day. It was Mr.Yashwant Sinha, the then Finance Minister of India in the NDA government (led by BJP) of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who changed the ritual by announcing the 2001 Union Budget at 11 am.

Halwa Ceremony

The printing of budget documents starts roughly a 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. Halwa is also served by the FM. This ceremony is performed as a part of the Indian tradition of having something sweet before starting an important work.