Budget 2017: The facts you need to know about the Budget of India...!

Budget 2017: The facts you need to know about the Budget of India...!

New Delhi: President of India Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday addressed both the Houses of the Parliament at the beginning of the 2017 Union Budget session describing it as 'historic'.

The President said, "This is a historic session heralding advancement of budget cycle and merger of the general budget with the rail budget for the first time."

It would be for the first time in 93 years that the general and the rail budget would not be presented separately and at the beginning of February, while it used to be presented during the last days of the month.

While this year the budget is said to have brought some historic changes, newstrack.com lets you know some interesting facts about the history of the 'Budget of India'.

In slides ahead: All you need to know about the budget of India...

The word budget derived from an old French word 'bougette' which means a 'purse'. It is stated as a quantified financial plan for a forthcoming accounting period.

Amendment law has been introduced in the Government of India (Allocation of work) Rules, 1961, this year, after the President gave his approval for the same. According to the amended law, now the Ministry of Finance will prepare both the general and the rail budget.

In slide ahead: About separate rail and general budget...

The process of presenting a separate rail budget in India started in the year 1924 and was carried on further even post-Independence while there is no law that binds the Centre to do so.

The Debroi and Kishore Desai committee suggested the amendment and presentation of a common budget instead of two separate ones for the 2017-2018 fiscal. The proposal was adopted by the Union Cabinet and has subsequently been approved by the President.

In next slide: Know about the 'Father of Budget'...

The budget was introduced for the first time in India on April 7, 1860 by the East India Company to the British Crown. James Wilson is also called as the father of Indian budget as he presented it for the first time on February 18, 1860.

The first budget of Independent India was presented on November 26, 1947 by the then Finance Minister R.K. Sanmukham Chetty.

The budget was presented at 1700 hours till year 2000 but the Atal Bihari Vajpayee led NDA government at Centre changed the tradition and it was presented at 1100 hours by the then Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha. This tradition has been carried on further.

In next side: Some records related to union budget...

Indra Gandhi has been India's only woman finance minister. Till date, no other Indian woman has had this unique distinction.

Morarji Desai, the former finance minister of India, presented the budget a record 10 times. After Desai, comes P. Chidambaram who has presented it in the Parliament for 9 times.

Rajiv Gandhi, Indira Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru are the only three Prime Ministers belonging to the same family to have presented the Budget. This unique achievement of the Gandhi family was completed in 1987-89 after V.P. Singh quit his government and Rajiv Gandhi presented it. Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru was the first one to do so. he did this in the financial year 1958-59.