As we move closer towards the Budget FY2023, we take a look at some budget trivia you may not be aware of...
The process of printing documents for the Budget begins with the annual ritual of the "Halwa Ceremony". As part of the ritual, 'halwa' is prepared in a big 'kadhai' (vessel) and served to the entire staff in the ministry.
The word budget is derived from 'bougette' which means small bag in French as we have seen time and again our respective Finance Ministers holding the 'budget bag'.
Budget papers began to be prepared in Hindi also from 1955-56.
Nirmala Sitharaman ditched the traditional Budget briefcase in 2019, instead carried a Red packet with the National Emblem wrapped with a ribbon.
Jawaharlal Nehru was the first Prime Minister to present the budget as he held the Finance Minister portfolio in 1958-59
The maximum number of Budgets has been presented by Morarji Desai. He presented budget 10 times.
In 1991-92, it was the first occasion in Independent India that the interim and final budgets were presented by two ministers of two different political parties.
Scrapping close to century old practice, in the Budget of 2017 the Railway Budget was merged with the Union Budget, a move which was expected to save close to Rs. 10,000 crore.
Earlier, Budget was presented at 5 pm on the last working day, inherited from colonial era. The practice was put to end in 2001 and the Union Budget is presented at 11 AM since then.
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