Union Budget 2024: On Tuesday, Nirmala Sitharaman posed with a red sleeve tablet ahead of Budget. Sitharaman is all set to present her seventh straight Budget on Tuesday for the fiscal 2024-25. The full Budget for the 2024-25 fiscal (April 2024 to March 2025) will be her seventh straight. She will better Desai's record, who presented consecutive five full budgets and one interim budget between 1959 to 1964.
This year will witness two budgets — an interim one in February and a full one this month. This is because an incumbent government cannot present a full Budget just before general elections.
The Union Budget will likely focus on expanding capital investment in several sectors, including infrastructure, construction, manufacturing and green energy, a professor of a top business school said. Over a period of time, the central government has increased capital expenditure by around 30 per cent every year, and this year, a massive shift is expected in this regard.
The first-ever Union Budget of independent India was presented on November 26, 1947, by the nation's first finance minister RK Shanmukham Chetty.
Former Prime Minister Morarji Desai holds the record for presenting the most budgets. He has presented a total of 10 budgets during his tenure as finance minister under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and later under Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
He presented his first budget on February 28, 1959, and presented full budgets in the following two years before presenting an interim one in 1962. This was followed by two full budgets. After four years, he presented another interim budget in 1967, followed by three full budgets in 1967, 1968, and 1969, presenting a total of 10 budgets.
