The Union Budget of India, also referred to as the Annual Financial Statement in Article 112 of the Constitution of India, is the annual budget of the Republic of India set by Ministry of Finance for the following financial year, with the revenues to be gathered by Department of Revenue to identify planned government spending and expected government revenue and the expenditures gathered by Department of Expenditure of the public sector, to forecast economic conditions in compliance with government policy.
The Government presents it on the first day of February so that it can be materialised before the beginning of new financial year in April. Until 2016 it was presented on the last working day of February by the Finance Minister in Parliament. The budget division of the Department of economic affairs (DEA) in the finance ministry is the nodal body responsible for producing the budget.
It is presented by means of the Finance bill and the Appropriation bill has to be passed by Lok Sabha before it can come into effect on 1 April, the start of India's financial year.
In modern times, the budget has been broadcast live from Sansad Bhawan on the DD National, DD News and Sansad TV. It is hosted without interruption from 11:00 am to 1:00 am, normally followed up with a report by a panel assessing the changes, benefits and flaws in the budget. Additional budget documents and materials are available on the government budget website and Union Budget Mobile app.
Rail Budget, presented separately for 92 Years has been merged with union budget.
Since 1947, there have been a total of 73 annual budgets, 14 interim budgets and four special budgets, or mini-budgets.
Traditions
Time of budget announcement
Until the year 1999, the Union Budget was announced at 5:00 pm on the last working day of the month of February. This practice was inherited from the colonial era. Actual agenda behind this tradition was that, it gives Britishers the time of 11:30 am, a relax time at their location. This clearly shows their colonial era mindset they had left on Indian politicians.Another reason was that until the 1990s, all that budgets seem to do was to raise taxes, a presentation in the evening gave producers and the tax collecting agencies the night to work out the change in prices.
It was Yashwant Sinha, the then Finance Minister of India in the NDA government (led by Bharatiya Janata Party) under Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who changed the ritual by announcing the 1999 Union Budget at 11 am. The tradition started from 2001.
Date of budget announcement
Also again in 2017, departing from the colonial-era tradition of presenting the Union Budget on the last working day of February the then Minister of Finance (India) Arun Jaitley, in the NDA government (led by Bharatiya Janata Party) of Narendra Modi announced that it will now be presented on 1 February.
Halwa ceremony
The printing of budget documents starts roughly one week ahead of presenting in the Parliament with a customary 'Halwa ceremony' in which Halwa (a sweet dish) is prepared in large quantities and served to the officers and support staff involved. They remain isolated and stay in the North Block office until the Budget is presented. The halwa is served by the Finance Minister. This ceremony is performed as a part of the Indian tradition of having something sweet before starting an important work.
Lock-In Period
‘Lock-in’ is a period of a number of days which exists to maintain the secrecy of the Budget. The Halwa ceremony begins the “lock-in” period of finance ministry staff in the Budget Press located in the ministry’s headquarters in the North Block. They can emerge only once the Finance Minister completes her Budget speech on 1 February.
Previously, this “lock-in” period – when officials cannot be in contact with the outside world – would be longer. Since 2021, however, the Budget has been presented in a purely digital format, and the lock-in period has gotten shorter.
The basement of North Block houses a printing press that was traditionally used to print budget documents for 40 years from 1980 to 2020. Thereafter, the budget went digital with bare minimum documents printed and the bulk distribution happening via mobile app or on the website.
Going digital also meant that the lock-in period has gotten shorter to just five days from the previous one that lasted up to two weeks.
Briefcase (discontinued) Until 2018, as a part of tradition, Finance ministers carried the budget in a leather briefcase. The tradition was established by the first Finance minister of India, R. K. Shanmukham Chetty.