Budget 2019: Famous Budgets from India's history

Union Minister Piyush Goyal will present the Centre's sixth and final budget on Friday in the Parliament, with sight set firm on the announcements that will have a potential impact on the upcoming General Elections. 

There had been significant talk in the weeks leading up to the budget that it wouldn't be 'interim', i.e. applicable till a new government is sworn in, rather that it would be a full-fledged 'general' budget. However, that appears to not be the case, as per a Finance Ministry clarification.

Meanwhile, ahead of the crucial budget presented by the Narendra Modi led-government prior to Lok Sabha 2019 elections, here's a look back at the consequential budgets that were chalked out in India's history. 

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Budget of 1947
Finance Minister- R.K Shanmukham Chetty

Independent India's first budget, proffered by the first Finance Minister of the country had estimated the total expenditure for the year to be Rs. 197.39 crore, with Rs. 92.74 crore was set aside for defence. The budget was burdened conspicuously on rehabilitating refugees bearing the brunt of partition and coping up with the food crisis.  

Budget of 1991
Finance Minister- Dr Manmohan Singh

The then Finance Minister presented a noteworthy 'Epochal Budget' during the time when the country was crippled with 'Balance of Payment Crisis'- that means India was unable to balance the financial accounts as exports were greater than imports. 

The Narasimha Rao led-government launched LPG- Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation. In which, the government revamped the import-export policy of the country by scrapping import licensing. A window was opened for foreign investments to instigate capital, technology and global markets.

Budget of 1997
Finance Minister- P. Chidambaram 

P. Chidambaram presented the climacteric 'Dream Budget' for a United Front government formed by an alliance of 13 parties. The then Finance Minister to curb black money announced 'Voluntary Disclosure of Income Scheme' and introduced a scheme to broaden the tax net. Tax collections escalated from Rs. 18,700 crore in 1997 to over Rs. 2 lakh crore in 2013. 

Budget of 2000
Finance Minister- Yashwant Sinha

The 'Millennium Budget' during the BJP government back in 2000 was induced to make the country a software IT hub, as the then Finance Minister said in his speech that the objective of this budget was to, "strengthen our role in the world economy through rapid growth of exports, higher foreign investment and prudent external debt management."

Customs duty in the IT sector was reduced on items including- computers, motherboards, floppy disks, microprocessors for computers, memory storage devices.  

Budget of 2018
Finance Minister- Arun Jaitley

Union Minister Arun Jaitley structured the 2018 budget to strengthen rural economy and agriculture, providing healthcare for the economically underprivileged, infrastructure development and provision of improved quality of education. Budget 2018's underlined feature was the Ayushman Bharat healthcare 'Modicare' scheme

Jaitley said the Government has ensured that benefits reach eligible beneficiaries and are delivered to them directly and said that Direct Benefit Transfer mechanism of India is the biggest such exercise in the world and is a global success story.

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Republic TV will be LIVE from 6 am with all the build-up ahead of what promises to be a very interesting budget.

Catch Budget 2019 Live and Piyush Goel’s interim budget speech. Check this space for all the latest news, live updates and headlines from Union Budget 2019. Republic World brings to you the latest developments across all sectors of Union Budget 2019.