First Finance Minister of the independent India, Shanmukham Chetty
Credit: X/@IndiaHistoryPic
The interim budget for the upcoming fiscal year will be presented by the Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.
2024 being an election year, and the budget being an interim one, major changes or new plans are unlikely to be announced.
As the first day of February is among the most awaited days for many in the country with the budget shaping the economy for the upcoming year and beyond.
However, earlier, the Union Budget was not presented on February 1. In 2017, Modi government changed the date of the budget presentation from February 28 to February 1, breaking free from a colonial era practice.
Here is a brief history of the Union Budget and the first Finance Minister to present the document.
The British crown took over the reins of India from the East India Company in 1858. Two years later, the first Budget of the then British India was introduced on 7th April, 1860. James Wilson was the finance minister of the country at that time.
Before India got partitioned and independence, an interim government was elected to oversee the transition from the British government to the newly-formed Indian and Pakistani governments.
In this interim government, Muslim League’s Liquat Ali Khan, who would later become the first Prime Minister of Pakistan, was handed the finance portfolio. Khan presented the 1946-47 interim budget.
The first budget of independent India was presented by the first Finance Minister of the country, Shanmukham Chetty. This budget was presented on November 26, 1947.
India’s first general elections took place in December to February 1952 and the Congress party led by Jawaharlal Nehru took oath as the first Prime Minister of India. Nehru entrusted C D Deshmukh with the Finance portfolio after the new ministry assumed office and he became the first to present the budget to the innaugural Lok Sabha.