Budget 2024: 7 Interesting Facts You Must Know Ahead Of FM Nirmala Sitharaman's Speech

India's first-ever Budget was presented on April 7, 1860, by Scottish economist James Wilson of the East India Company. 

The inaugural Union Budget of independent India was presented on November 26, 1947, by the country's first Finance Minister, RK Shanmukham Chetty.

Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for the most Budget proposals, presenting a total of 10 Budgets during his tenure as Finance Minister from 1962 to 1969. Following him are P. Chidambaram (9), Pranab Mukherjee (8), and Yashwant Sinha (8). 

The longest Budget speech record is held by Nirmala Sitharaman, whose speech on February 1, 2020, lasted two hours and 40 minutes. The shortest Budget speech was delivered by Hirubhai Mulljibhai Patel in 1977, with just 800 words.

In 1995, the Budget was printed in Hindi and English for the first time. During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Budget transitioned to a paperless format. The Railway Budget was integrated into the Union Budget in 2017. (Image Credit: All Pics From Wikipedia)

In 1950, Budget documents were leaked from the Rashtrapati Bhavan Press. John Mathai, the Finance Minister at the time, was accused of serving powerful interests and subsequently resigned from his position.

Until 1999, the Budget was presented in Parliament on the last working day of February at 5 pm. In that year, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha changed the presentation time to 11 am. Former Minister Arun Jaitley further changed the date of the presentation to February 1, 2017.