In Photos: Union Budgets That Stood Out in India's Modern History
The Quint brings you a few iconic budgets that have been presented in Parliament over the years.
(From left) Former finance ministers Yashwantrao Chavan, P Chidambaram, and current finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman ahead of presenting the Union Budget in Parliament.
(Photo: Altered by The Quint)
Union Budget 2023 will be the 76th Budget of independent India. The first-ever Budget was presented to the British Crown by James Wilson of the East India Company in the year 1860.
Meanwhile, independent India saw its first Budget in 1947, although it did not consist of any tax or policy reforms. It was a review of the state of the economy at that time. The first Budget to be presented in an elected Parliament was the Budget for the year 1952-53.
The Quint brings you a few iconic budgets that have been presented since then.
Union Budget 2023 will be the 76th Budget of independent India. Ahead of its tabling on 1 February, The Quint looks back at those Budgets which were iconic in their own way. Let's start with the 'Black Budget' presented for the year 1973-74 by then finance minister Yashwantrao B Chavan. Why ‘Black Budget’? Because India had a huge fiscal deficit of Rs 550 crore during that financial year. A fiscal deficit is the difference between the country’s total revenue and total expenditure.
At this time, Indira Gandhi was the prime minister of the country, and her government had decided to allocate Rs 56 crore for the nationalisation of coal mines, general insurance companies, and India Copper Corp – a move that was widely criticised.
The Carrot and Stick Budget: This Budget was presented by VP Singh in the year 1986 for the Congress government led by Rajiv Gandhi. In this Budget, Singh introduced Modified Value Added Tax with the aim to lessen the cascading effect of taxes on the end consumer. In addition, Singh announced several measures to track down black marketers and tax evaders. “There cannot, and will not, be a compromise on this score. Those who abuse the nation’s trust must be dealt with firmly and with full force of the law,” Singh was quoted as saying by News18. Since the Budget comprised both rewards and punishment, it was referred to as the 'Carrot and Stick Budget'.
The Epochal Budget: The 1991-92 Budget presented by Dr Manmohan Singh for the PV Narasimha Rao-led Congress government is known as the Epochal Budget as it opened the Indian economy to liberalisation and globalisation. Besides, the Budget overhauled the import-export policy as it slashed customs duty from the existing 220% to 150% and vigorously promoted exports to expose the Indian economy to global competition. In this image, Dr Singh is seen giving a TV interview after presenting the Union Budget for the year 1991-92 to Parliament.
The Dream Budget: The 1997 Budget presented by P Chidambaram was called the 'Dream Budget' as it lowered personal income tax rates as well as corporate tax rates with an aim to increase tax collection. In this Budget, the Congress government led by HD Deve Gowda cut down the highest personal income tax rate from 40 percent to 30 percent and that for domestic companies to 35 percent. It also slashed customs duty to 40 percent and simplified the excise duty structure.
The Millennium Budget: Presented for the financial year 2000-01 by Yashwant Sinha, this Budget promoted the country as a software development hub and put India’s Information Technology (IT) industry on the global map. It lowered customs duty on computers and computer accessories such as CD Roms, leading to the rapid growth of the IT Sector.
The Rollback Budget: Yashwant Sinha’s 2002-03 budget for the NDA government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee is called so because many of its proposals were rolled back.
Once-in-a-Century Budget: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman called the Budget presented by her in 2021 a ‘Once-in-a-Century Budget’ as it comprised several proposals to revive Asia’s third-largest economy by investing in infrastructure, robust tax collection, and aggressive privatisation. This was also the first Budget after COVID-19 hit the world and dented the global economy.
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