Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Interim Budget 2024-25 on February 1, 2024. It is expected to commence at 11 am. Before the announcement, read some lesser-known facts about the Indian Budget.
The word BUDGET is derived from the French word BOUGETTE which means ‘small bag’.
The first union budget of colonial India was presented on 7 April 1860 by Scottish Economist James Wilson who used to work with East India Company. At that time, India was under the colonial rule.
The first budget of Independent India was presented by the first Finance Minister RK Shanmukham Chetty on 26 November 1947. It was presented three months after India attained independence. The first budget was INTERIM too.
Former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was the first PM to present the union budget for FY 1958-59. Usually, the union budget is introduced by the Finance Minister only.
The Millennium Budget was presented by the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in the FY 2000-01. It is called as ‘The Millenium Budget’ as it revolutionized the IT sector of India.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds the record of delivering the longest budget speech in the union budget 2020 - 2 hours and 42 minutes.
The standard budget briefcase was replaced with the traditional Bahi Khata (red cover with National emblem) by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
For the first time in Indian history, the paperless budget was presented in FY 2021-22.