Lesser-known and interesting facts about Budget

Here are some of the lesser-known and interesting facts about budget which you can't afford to miss.

The historic 1991 budget

Dr Manmohan Singh's first budget in 1991 became historic as he rolled out a series of structural reforms, opening up the country's economy for the first time ever. It reduced peak customs from 220 percent to 150 percent. He reduced the import duty from 300 per cent to 50 per cent. It brought about the expansion of the services sector, increased consumer choices, and helped in reducing poverty too. Prime Minister Narasimha Rao and finance minister Dr Manmohan Singh introduced a new era in India and pulled the country out of the darkness.

What's a Black budget?

The Budget of 1973-74 is also known as 'Black Budget'. This is because the budget deficit that year amounted to Rs 550 crore. In the Budget speech on February 28, 1973, then finance minister Yashwantrao B Chavan announced nationalisation of coal mines. The decision, many believe, had an adverse effect on coal production in the long run. The finance minister provided Rs 56 crore for the nationalisation of general insurance companies, coal mines, and Indian Copper Corp.

Birthday on Budget day

Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the maximum number of budgets at 10. He was also the only finance minister to have presented budgets on his birthday, February 29 in 1964 and 1968.

Budget timings

Yashwant Sinha, who held the position of finance minister from 1998 to 2002, changed the timings of Budget presentation to 11 am, which earlier used to be 5 pm.

The famous budget briefcase

India's budget bag is a copy of Britain's quintessential red Gladstone box that has been used in every single British budget since 1860. However, in 2010, the UK's red Gladstone bag had become so shabby that it was 'officially' retired. Over the years, the shape of the bag has been somewhat consistent, even though successive FMs have experimented with different colours. It has now been replaced by a 'Bahikhata'. This year, Budget will be paperless.

The traditional Halwa ceremony

The halwa ceremony is symbolic for printing the documents related to the budget. The ceremony takes place a week before the actual presentation of the budget. Halwa is prepared in a large frying pot and served to everybody in North Block. From then on, a large number of support staff and officials who are involved with the budget remain cut off from the outside world till budget day.