Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to create history when she presents her seventh straight Budget on Tuesday for the fiscal 2024-25, surpassing the record of former prime minister Morarji Desai.

Sitharaman, who will turn 65 next month, was in 2019 appointed as India’s first full-time woman finance minister when Prime Minister Narendra Modi won a decisive second term. Since then, she has presented six straight budgets, including an interim one in February this year. (Also Read: Lighter Bags, Heavier Hearts: Home, Restaurant Kitchens Feel Pinch Of vegetable Price Rise)

The full Budget for the 2024-25 fiscal (April 2024 to March 2025) will be her seventh straight. She will better Desai’s record, who presented consecutive five full budgets and one interim budget between 1959 to 1964. (Also Read: Union Budget 2024: FM Sitharaman To Present Seventh Consecutive Budget In Paperless Format)

This year will witness two budgets – an interim one in February and a full one this month. This is because an incumbent government cannot present a full Budget just before general elections. The presentation on July 23 will be the first Budget by the BJP-led NDA government since it was re-elected last month.

Here are some facts related to Budget presentation in Independent India:

FIRST BUDGET: The first-ever Union Budget of independent India was presented on November 26, 1947, by the nation’s first finance minister RK Shanmukham Chetty.

MOST NUMBER OF BUDGETS: Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the most budgets. He has presented a total of 10 budgets during his tenure as finance minister under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and later under Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.

He presented his first budget on February 28, 1959, and presented full budgets in the following two years before presenting an interim one in 1962. This was followed by two full budgets. After four years, he presented another interim budget in 1967, followed by three full budgets in 1967, 1968, and 1969, presenting a total of 10 budgets.

SECOND HIGHEST NUMBER OF BUDGET: Former finance minister P Chidambaram presented the budget on nine occasions. He first presented the Budget on March 19, 1996, during the United Front government led by Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda.

He presented another budget under the same government next year and returned to the hot seat when the Congress-led UPA came to power in 2014. He presented five budgets between 2004 and 2008. After a stint as Union Home Minister, he was back in the finance ministry and presented budgets in 2013 and 2014.

THIRD HIGHEST NUMBER OF BUDGETS: Pranab Mukherjee presented eight budgets during his tenure as finance minister. He presented budgets in 1982, 1983 and 1984 and five straight ones between February 2009 and March 2012 in the Congress-led UPA government.

MANMOHAN SINGH: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh presented five straight budgets between 1991 and 1995 when he was finance minister in the P V Narasimha Rao government.

LONGEST BUDGET SPEECH: Sitharaman holds the record for the longest budget speech when her presentation on February 1, 2020, lasted two hours and 40 minutes. At the time, she cut short her speech with two pages still remaining.

SHORTEST BUDGET SPEECH: Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel’s interim Budget speech in 1977 is so far the shortest at just 800 words.

TIMING: The Budget was traditionally presented on the last day of February at 5 pm. The timing followed a colonial era practice when the announcements could be made in London and India at the same time. India is 4 hours and 30 minutes ahead of the British Summer Time, and so presenting the budget at 5 pm in India ensured that it was happening in the daytime in the United Kingdom.

The timing was changed in 1999 when the then finance minister Yashwant Singh in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government presented the budget at 11 am. Since then budgets are presented at 11 am.

DATE: The Budget presentation date was in 2017 changed to the 1st of February to allow the government to complete the Parliamentary approval process by March-end and allow implementation of the Budget from the start of the fiscal on April 1. Presenting the Budget on February 29 meant that the implementation could not start before May/June after accounting for 2-3 months of the parliamentary approval process.

New Delhi: With the government set to present the Union Budget 2024-25 on July 23, industry leaders and experts have reiterated the importance of structural reforms to drive sustainable and inclusive economic growth, especially the critical role of infrastructure development towards India becoming the third largest economy. 

According to industry chambers, by prioritising structural reforms, strategic infrastructure development, targeted sectoral initiatives and a rationalised tax system, India can navigate current challenges and emerge as a stronger, more competitive economy in the long run.

Assocham has recommended accelerating investments through public-private partnerships (PPPs) with a focus on key sectors like transportation, energy, water supply, and digital infrastructure. This will enhance connectivity, improve productivity, and bolster India’s overall competitiveness.

In order to address the growing concern for environmental sustainability, the leading chamber of commerce urged the government to introduce policies and incentives that promote clean technologies, renewable energy sources, and sustainable practices across industries like agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation.

The government can further streamline regulations, expedite approvals and permits, and leverage digitalisation to attract investments and enhance operational efficiency, according to industry watchers.

According to ICRA, the government’s revenue receipts are likely to witness an upward revision of Rs 1.2 trillion in the ‘FY2025 Revised Budget’ over the ‘Interim Budget Estimate’ (IBE), while pegging a relatively shallower increase in the revenue expenditure (revex) target, largely focused on the rural economy.

The rating agency expects the revenue receipts of the government to increase on the back of a higher RBI dividend and a rise in tax collections.

“The government is likely to set a fiscal deficit target at 4.9-5.0 per cent for FY2025, vis-a-vis the IBE of 5.1 per cent of GDP, without compromising the capital expenditure target of Rs. 11.1 trillion,” according to ICRA. The Budget Session of Parliament will start on July 22 and extend till August 12.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget at a time when the Indian economy has clocked a robust 8.2 per cent growth in 2023-24, which is the fastest among the world’s major economies, and inflation coming down to below 5 per cent.

The RBI has stated that the economy is headed to an over 8 per cent growth trajectory. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already declared that “the next five years will be a decisive fight against poverty”.

Meanwhile, apex business chamber CII has requested the rationalisation of stamp duty on land and phasing out the cross-subsidy on power rates to “reduce the cost of doing business”. CII has also suggested that captive power plants (CPPS) should be brought on par with the power sector for coal pricing, allocation, and transportation.

It points out that as highlighted in the National Logistics policy, the government should continue digitisation aiming towards paperless logistics to save significant time and cost. The business chamber has also urged the government to maintain corporate tax rates at current levels to provide tax certainty for businesses. It has also sought the rationalisation of the capital gains tax rate structure.