Tidbits and more…..
By
Ruma Dubey
about 6 years ago
- Morarji Desai, who first took charge of the finance ministry in 1958, presented the Budget ten times-the most by any finance minister till date.
- Jawaharlal Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi presented the Union Budget themselves during their prime ministerial tenures.
- The 1965-66 Budget contained the first disclosure scheme for black money.
- Indira Gandhi is the only woman to hold the office of finance minister in India till now. Gandhi held office from 16 July 1969 to 27 June 1970.
- Budget was first introduced in India on 7th April, 1860 from East-India Company to British Crown. The first Finance Member, who presented the Budget in India, was James Wilson on 7th April, 1860.
- The precedent for the convention of the budget speech to start earlier at 5:00 pm was set by Sir Basil Blackett in 1924. According to him, this was done to give some relief to officials who worked all night to present a financial statement. This practice of 5Pm came to an end in 2000.
- Planning Commission came into existence while presenting the budget for 1950-51, the first budget for the Republic of India.
- Schemes like National Rural Health Mission, Gender Budget and NREGA were announced first time in budget of 2005-06