Union Budget - All You Need To Know

What is a budget and what does it consist of?

A Budget is an estimate of outflows and inflows that a Government will incur during a financial year. It consists of actual figures for the preceding year and the budgetary estimate for the current year.

Is an annual Budget necessary?
 
It is not only necessary, but compulsory. Under Article 112 of the Constitution, a Statement of Receipts and Payments (estimated) has to be tabled in the Parliament for every financial year. The Receipts and Payments statement contains consolidated fund, contingency fund and the public account.

The consolidated fund is a statement of all the inflows, such as tax revenues; and all expenditure, which constitute outflows. To withdraw from this fund the government requires parliamentary authorisation.

The contingency fund is a corpus of about Rs. 50 crore kept aside for unforeseen expenses. The public account is one where all money raised from government schemes, such as Provident Fund, is accounted for.

What does the Budget document contain?
 
The budget speech and the document has two parts – Part A and B. Part A is the macroeconomic part of the budget where various schemes are announced, and allocations are made to several sectors. The priorities of the government are also announced in this part

Part B deals with the Finance Bill, which contains taxation proposals such as income tax revisions and indirect taxes.


What is the process of Budget approval? 
 
The Finance Minister introduces the Budget in the Lok Sabha by way of a speech and gives an overview of the Budget. He then tables it in Rajya Sabha.

Both Houses of the Parliament then allot time for a general discussion on the Budget, to which the Finance Minister replies at the end.

Lok Sabha then takes up a discussion on each ministry’s expenditure proposals. After this prescribed period, known as the Demand for Grants, the Speaker applies what is called the ‘guillotine’. Once the ‘guillotine’ is applied, all outstanding demands are put to vote. Though both the Houses of Parliament discuss the Budget, only the Lok Sabha votes on it.

The Appropriation Bill is then introduced after all demands are passed, and once this Bill is passed, the government receives authorisation to draw from the consolidated fund. Once the Appropriation Bill becomes an Act, the Finance Bill is passed. Once this is done, the final Budget gets approved.

What will happen if a Budget is not presented before said date?
 
If the Budget is not passed within the announced date, Article 116 of the Constitution empowers the Lok Sabha to pass the Vote-On-Account, a document which covers only the expenditure incurred.

 

1)R K Shanmugam Chetty presented India's furst budget on Nov 26,1947

2)Indira Gandhi is the only woman to have presented the Union Budget

3)Morarji Desai holds the record forpresenting the most number of budgets at 10

4)Morarji Desai is the only Finance Minister to have presented the budget on his birthday ,that is , on Feb 29,1964 and 1968

5)Finance Minister Yaswant Sinha changed the timing of presentation of the Union Budget from  5 P.M to 11 A M in 1999

6)Union Budget was presented on the last working day of February until 2016,but Finance Minister Arun Jaitley changed it to Feb 01 in 2017

7)In 2017,Railway Budget was presented with the Union Budget,breaking a  92 year  old practice

8)Pranab Mukerjee is the first Rajya Sabha Member to have presented the Union Budget - presented the annual budgets for the financial years 1982-83, 1983–84 and 1984-85.

9)Following a constitutional crisis when the I K Gujral Ministry was on its way out, a special session of Parliament was convened just to pass Chidambaram's 1997-98 budget. This budget was passed without a debate.

10)Finance Ministers who presented budgets since Independence

• R K Shanmugam Chetty twice FY 1048 and 1949

• John Mathai twice FY 1950 and 1951
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• C D Deshmukh 7 times FY1952;1953;1953;1954;1955;1956 and 1957 

• T T Krishnamachari 6 times FY 1957;1958'1958'1965;1966 and 1966
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• Jawaharlal Nehru once in FY 1959
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• Morarji Desai 10 Times FY 1960 - 63;FY 1963;FY 1964;FY 1968;FY 1968 -70
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• Sachindra Chaudhuri once in FY 1967
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• Indira Gandhi once in FY 1971

• Y B Chavan  7 Times FY 1972;FY1972;FY 1972;FY 1973-75 and FY 1975

• C Subramanaian twice in FY 1976 and 1977

• H M Patel thrice  FY 1978;FY 1978 and FY 1979

• Charan Singh once FY 1980

• R Venkataraman thrice FY 1981;FY 1981 and FY 1982

• Pranab Mukerjee 8 Times  FY 1983 - 85;FY 2010 -13

  

   

• V P Singh twice FY 1986 and FY 1987

• Rajiv Gandhi once FY !988

• N D Tiwari once FY 1989

• S B Chavan once FY 1990

• Madhu Dandavate once FY 1991

• Yashwant Singh 7 Times FY 1992;FY 1999;FY 1999 to FY 2003

• Manmohan Singh 6 Times FY1991-96;2008-19 and 2012

  

   

• Jaswant Singh twice FY 2004 and FY 2005

• P Chidambaram 9 Times 1997-98;FY 2005-09; FY 2014-15

• Arun Jaitley 4 Times FY 2015 - 18