Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the Union Budget 2024 on July 23. This marks the first budget of the BJP-led NDA government's third term. The Budget session, which will begin from July 22, will end on August 12.
While the finance minister typically presents the budget, history has seen prime ministers take on this responsibility as well.
On February 22, 1958, the then Finance Minister, TT Krishnamachari, resigned after allegations of corruption and fraud in the Mundhra scam. With the Finance Minister's resignation, the responsibility of presenting the Union Budget fell on the shoulders of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.
Nehru, who was already handling the portfolios of External Affairs and Atomic Energy, took additional charge of the Finance Ministry and presented the Budget on February 28, 1958, making him the first Prime Minister to do so.
At the start of his budget speech, Nehru acknowledged the unusual circumstances, saying, "The Finance Minister, who would normally have made this statement this afternoon, is no longer with us. This heavy-duty has fallen upon me almost at the last moment."
Nehru described his budget as "pedestrian", building upon the previous year's budget presented by Krishnamachari, which introduced "novel taxes" like wealth tax and expenditure tax.
After Nehru, Morarji Desai, during his tenure as Prime Minister of India, presented budgets for each year from 1967-68 to 1969-70, as well as an interim budget for 1967-68. The former PM has presented a total of 10 budgets from 1959-1969.
After Desai resigned in 1970, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi presented the budget twice during her tenure. Her budgets focused on poverty alleviation, social welfare programmes and nationalisation of banks.
Rajiv Gandhi presented the budget during 1987-89 after VP Singh resigned as the finance minister in 1987. Singh was forced to resign after he began to investigate high-profile cases of tax evasion, including those suspected to be close to the then Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi.
Manmohan Singh, who later became Prime Minister, presented the budget as Finance Minister in 1991. The budget was a response to the severe economic crisis of 1991.
