New Delhi: The Union Budget 2021 was presented in paperless form for the first time, with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman seen holding a ‘Made in India’ tablet in a red case instead of the conventional brown briefcase or ‘bahi khata’ as she posed for the media ahead of Parliament session.

The colonial legacy of carrying the Budget papers in briefcase was dropped last year by Nirmala Sitharaman when she, for the first time in the history of Independent India, carried the Budget in a “bahi khata”, wrapped in a red-cloth.

Then she had said the Modi Government was not a “suitcase-carrying Government”, seen as a retort to Congress’ “suit-boot sarkar” jibe. The decision to opt for a tablet this time also reinforces Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious “Digital India” mission. In 1947, India’s first Finance Minister R.K. Shanmukham Chetty carried a leather portfolio to present the first Budget.

This is the third consecutive Budget to be presented by Sitharaman. Her maiden Budget presentation was in July 2019 when she was appointed as the Union Finance Minister after the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi won the Lok Sabha elections in May 2019 for the second time. It will also be the ninth straight Budget (including two interim budgets) of the NDA Government which had come to power in 2014.

Last month, the Government launched the “Union Budget Mobile App” on the occasion of the Halwa ceremony to enable MPs and people to access Budget documents digitally. It was launched as no Budget papers will be printed this year in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

BUDGET FACTS

2021-2022 : First paperless Budget in Indian History 

2021-2022 :  Ninth Budget of Modi-led NDA Government

90 : Number of Budgets presented since India gained independence 

220 : Number of paragraphs in Pranab Mukherjee’s final Budget Speech in 2012

2 : Finance Ministers — I.K. Gujral (stint of 9 days) and H.N. Bahuguna (7 months) —couldn’t present Budgets 

Power of eight :  Morarji Desai was the longest serving Finance Minister – 5 years under Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and 3 under Indira Gandhi. 

‘Black Budget’ : The Union Budget of 1973-74, presented by the then Finance Minister Y. B. Chavan, was known as ‘Black Budget’ because that year, the Budget deficit was Rs. 550 crore.

800 : Number of words in the shortest-ever interim Budget Speech by H.M. Patel in 1977

2.5 Hours : Taken by Arun Jaitley to finish the longest Budget presentation in 2015

1994 : The year services tax was introduced by Dr. Manmohan Singh in Budget

92 : Number of years after which Rail Budget has been merged with the Union Budget

3 : PMs who presented the Budget — Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi

1964-1965 : T.T. Krishnamachari as Finance Minister introduced voluntary disclosure of concealed income scheme 

1987 : PM Rajiv Gandhi introduced Corporate Tax