Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the Budget 2024 at 11 AM on July 23.
All eyes are on Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as she is slated to present the Union Budget for fiscal year 2024-25 on July 23. With the budget, it will be the first presentation for the BJP-led NDA government after it returned to power with its third consecutive term in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Clearly, the government’s agenda with the budget remains economic growth, with a focus on fiscal policies for the new financial year.
As for the timing, the budget presentation will start at 11 am in the Lok Sabha, and it will be broadcasted on the national broadcaster Doordarshan apart from being live broadcast on various news and social media platforms. However, do you know that while it is now customary for the budget to be presented at 11 am, it was not always the case?
For those caught unaware, the Union Budget timings were changed from 5:00 pm to 11:00 am after several years of Independence. In fact, as late as 1999, the budget was tabled in Parliament at 5:00 pm. It was because the practice was in place since the colonial regime. The timing of the 5:00 pm slot was reportedly fixed by the British government since it helped them make budget announcements simultaneously in India as well as in London. Since India is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of the United Kingdom in terms of time, the 5:00 pm slot in New Delhi corresponded to 11:30 am GMT in London. Hence, it was an ideal time to coordinate the budgetary announcements between the two nations.
Finally, in a historic move, the budget timings and presentation of the financial statement in Parliament was changed to 11:00 am. In the year 1999, the then-finance minister Yashwant Sinha, under the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government, presented the Budget at 11 am, instead of 5 pm. The budget was presented on February 27, 1999 with the altered timing, and it is still followed by all the Finance Ministers till date.
The change was due to two reasons, one to end the colonial era practice and two, to give more time given to MPs and officials to gauge and debate the budget announcements. However, it needs to be noticed that it wasn't until over 50 years after India gained independence that the timings remained unchanged and the colonial practices were followed.
Not just the time, the Budget presentation has also been changed over the years. Earlier, the Union Budget was tabled in the Parliament on the last day of February. However, former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley altered it to February 1 2017, in order to give more time to the government to implement its Budget plans.
