Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will present the Union Budget for financial year 2018-19 on February 1. The first phase of the budget session of the parliament began from January 29 and will continue till February 9. This year's budget session is crucial as it comes after the Modi government made two very big financial decisions in the last couple of years - Demonetisation and implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). It is also BJP government's fifth and last budget presentation before the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Ahead of the budget presentation, the Economic Survey was tabled in both houses of the Parliament on Monday by Mr Jaitley. The Economic Survey said that India's economy is "picking up quite nicely", and will expand by 7-7.5 per cent in 2018-19 to again become the world's fastest growing major economy.
A look at 10 interesting facts about Union Budget of India:
The first Union Budget of independent India was presented on November 26, 1947 by former finance minister RK Shanmukham Chetty.
The highest number of budget presentations have been made by former finance minister Morarji Desai. He presented 10 union budgets, followed by P Chidambaram's 9 and Pranab Mukherjee's 8.
On February 29 in 1964 and 1968, Morarji Desai became the only finance minister to present the Union budget on his birthday.
After Morarji Desai's resignation from finance minister's post in 1969, 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. She remains the only woman finance minister of India till date.
About 10-12 days ahead of the budget presentation, a customary 'halwa ceremony' is performed in which large quantities of the sweet dish is prepared for the officers and staff. These officials remain isolated and stay in the North Block while the budget documents get printed. The budget work is performed in full secrecy. The traditional significance is that a sweet should be eaten before beginning of an important work.
In 1997-98, the Union Budget was passed without any debate, following a constitutional crisis when the IK Gujral Ministry was on its way out and a special session of parliament was convened just to pass the Union Budget.
The 1997-98 Union Budget, presented by the Finance Minister P Chidambaram, was termed as "Dream Budget" as a number of economic reforms were done including lowering income tax rates, removal of the surcharge on corporate taxes and reduced corporate tax rates.
Until the year 1999, the Union Budget was announced at 5 pm on the last working day of February. Former finance minister in the NDA government Yashwant Sinha, however, changed the ritual by announcing the 1999 Union Budget at 11 am.
Till 2016 the Union Budget was presented on the last working day of February. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, however, changed that tradition in 2017, the Union Budget was presented on February 1 and the tradition is likely to continue.
Similarly, till 2016, the railway budget was presented a few days before the Union budget. In 2017, however, the railway budget was presented along with the Union Budget, breaking a 92-year-old practice. This year too, the two important budgets will be presented together by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on February 1.
