Often criticised for not speaking much, Singh spoke 18,177 words in 1991

New Delhi: Nirmala Sitharaman is the second woman to present Union Budget. Indira Gandhi was the first. But Indira Gandhi was the Prime Minister who held the finance portfolio with her. Nirmala Sitharaman is different in that sense. She presents the Union Budget solely as Union Minister for Finance. Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi were the only other Prime Ministers who presented Union Budget.

Sitharaman’s first budget is similar to the first Budget of Independent India. In 1947, two budgets were presented. First budget was presented in March. It was for United India that included today’s Pakistan as well as Bangladesh. But partition happened in August making the March Budget inoperative even though expenditures were authorised.

The Jawaharlal Nehru government felt that a new budget was required as this could be a wish of the newly independent people. R.K. Shanmukham Cherry, the first Finance Minister of Independent India, was tasked to present New India’s Budget for the period of 15 August 1947 to 31 March 1948. Cherry could, however, present his Budget on 26 November 1947. Sitharaman also presents Budget for practically a truncated period of the fiscal.

Black money and reforms

By the time the euphoria of Independence subsided, corruption and black money had become the order of Indian economy. The economic progress that was expected under Independent Indian government was not there for the people. This called for a reformative action.

Against this backdrop, T.T. Krishnamachari presented Budget for 1964-65, the last of Nehru government. It was the first distinct effort in a Budget to dig out black money. 

Between 1964 and 1966, Krishnamachari introduced what is called the first Voluntary Disclosure Income Scheme (VDIS).

Next such scheme came in 1997 when P. Chidambaram presented his “Dream Budget”. Chidambaram promised to waive off penalty and granted immunity from any action for disclosing black money. The disclosed money was, however, not to get any interest on it.

For bigger reforms, Manmohan Singh – as Finance Minister – 1991 Budget was the watershed moment. He threw open Indian economy held tightly under the garb of socialism. LPG – liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation – set India on fast trajectory of economic progress.

Sitharaman is expected to do both – unearth more black money and bring in lateral economic reforms. Direct tax reforms could be around the corner with indirect taxes having been largely taken care of by the goods and services tax GST) that was rolled out in July 2017. Disinvestment is another aspect to look out for in Sitharaman’s first budget presentation.

Long and short

In pre-GST times, Union Budget used to be one of the marquee events to be held in Parliament. Now, the budget speeches have somewhat lost their sheen.  Arun Jaitley holds the record for second, third and fourth longest budget speeches in terms of word count – in 2014, 2017 and 2016 respectively. In terms of words, Dr. Manmohan Singh – often criticised for not speaking much – delivered the longest ever budget speech in 1991 – 18,177 words.

Another Finance Minister from the BJP, Jaswant Singh holds the record for the longest duration of budget speech. He spoke for 2 hours 13 minutes to present Union Budget 2003-04. For record, H.M. Patel spoke only 800 words when he presented budget in 1977. That was an interim     budget though.

Other trivia

Till 1998, Union Budget was presented at 5 pm keeping in tune with pre-Independence tradition when the annual finance statement was read out to suit timings of political masters sitting in London. This changed in 1999, when Yashwant Sinha presented Atal Bihari Vajpayee government’s budget at 11 am. Sitharaman is following the trend.

Another break came in 2017, when the Narendra Modi government changed the date of budget presentation from February 28 to February 1. 

Arun Jaitley was the first Finance Minister to do so. Piyush Goyal was the next who presented interim budget earlier this year.

Budget 2019-20 is Sitharaman’s first and she might end up presenting four more – that will be half of the maximum number of budgets presented by an Indian Finance Minister. Morarji Desai presented it 10 times followed by P Chidambaram at nine. And finally, two Finance Ministers have become the President of India – R. Venkataraman and Pranab Mukherjee.