New Delhi: Budget plays a very crucial role in everyone's life. From personal to professional requirements everything depends on the budget. But where the word budget actually originated?
It was coined from the French word 'Bougette' which means a leather bag.
In 1860, the then Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Chief William Ewart Gladstone carried a red suitcase with him, known as the red box or the Budget box. The suitcase contained bundles of financial papers which was required by Gladstone.
Maybe this is the only reason behind the Finance Minister's carrying a leather briefcase on the Budget day.
Here are some of the basic knowledge which one needs to know regarding the history of the Budget:
To begin with, the first Budget was presented in the year 1860 under the British government in the English language. The credit for preparing and presenting the first Budget was given to the then Finance Minister James Wilson.
Under the British government, Budget was presented in the evening at 5 p.m. as mostly the Budget presented at that time was to raise the taxes. The evening presentation enabled the tax collecting agencies to work on the changes made.
Before India got its independence, the last Budget was presented by Liaquat Ali Khan on 9th October 1946 till 14 August 1947.
Post-Independent India
After independence, the first Budget was presented by R.K Shanmukham Chetty on November 26, 1947.
It is interesting to note that the Indian Constitution does not have the word Budget in it. But as per Article 112, budget is referred to as an Annual Financial Statement for a particular financial year.
After Shanmukham John Mathai became the second Finance Minister presenting the Budget for the year 1949-50. He also discussed planning commission and it's five-year plans.
CD Deshmukh presented India's first elected government Budget.
Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister who presented the Budget in 1958.
From the year 1955-56, Budget documents were started to be written in the Hindi language.
In 1964 and 1968 the General Budget was presented by Morarji Desai on his birthday. He became the first Prime Minister to present the budget on his birthday.
After his resignation in the year 1970 Indira Gandhi became the first woman Prime Minister to present the Budget.
In 2001 NDA government presented the Budget for the first time at 11 am. Yashwant Sinha became the first Finance Minister to present the Budget in the morning time.
In the year 2016, a major change was made by the Modi government in the Budget. The date of presenting the Budget shifted from 28 February to 1 February to manage further delays in approval of the Budget and mark the beginning of the new financial year on April 1.
Read more
