Budget 2024 : Know about 5 finance ministers of Indian history… whose budgets changed the face of the economy

Budget 2024: After independence, RK Sanmukham Chetty was the first finance minister. He presented the first Union Budget of independent India on 26 November 1947. Let us know about five such budgets which proved to be milestones in the economic history of India.

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Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is presenting the first budget of Modi 3.0. The general public and the industry have a lot of expectations from this budget. India has a rich tradition of budgeting. India's first budget was presented by Scottish economist James Wilson in the year 1860. If we talk about post independence then RK Sanmukham Chetty was the first finance minister. He presented the first Union Budget of independent India on 26 November 1947. Since then more than 70 Union Budgets have been presented in the country. Let us know about five such budgets which proved to be milestones in the economic history of India.

Liberalization of the economy took place in 1991-92. If any budget determines the future of modern India, it is the Union Budget of 1991. At that time the country was facing a serious economic crisis. In a way, India is on the verge of bankruptcy. The then finance minister Manmohan Singh used his ability as an economist and made important reforms in the country's economy. This budget has proved to be a landmark in the economic history of India. By ending the much-vaunted 'License Raj', it has improved India's image across the world. License Raj means a system in which you had to get a permit or license from the government to do any business.

Chidambaram brought the 'Dream Budget' in 1997-98. P Chidambaram worked under Finance Minister Manmohan Singh in the 1991 Narasimha Rao government. He introduced economic and financial efficiency while presenting the 1997 budget, when he became the finance minister. Experts have named this budget as 'Dream Budget'. In which a big reduction was seen in personal income tax and corporate tax. The maximum rate of personal income tax has been reduced from 40 to 30 percent. This brought great relief to the taxpayers and was considered one of the best budgets in Indian history.

Yashwant Sinha presented the budget in 2000-01 as expected by the people. Yashwant Sinha outlined the digital revolution in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-led government. His budget proved revolutionary especially for the IT sector. In which customs duty was reduced on 21 items including computers. Due to which the country's IT industry boomed and India became the hub of IT growth.

Arun Jaitley merged the general and railway budgets in 2016-17. Late Arun Jaitley was the finance minister in the first term of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government. He has made a historic change by merging the general budget and the railway budget. This was the end of a 92-year-old tradition. Arun Jaitley streamlined both the budgets by merging them and presented one budget. Since then the railway budget has not been presented separately.

2019-20 Sitharaman gave a big relief to the corporate world. The current Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the first Budget on 5 July 2019. His first major economic reform was to reduce corporate tax from 30 percent to 22 percent. In fact, demonetisation and implementation of GST took a big hit to the economy. The reduction in corporate tax helped the industry a lot in recovery. Sitharaman was also made in-charge of the Kovid-19 Economic Response Task Force during the Corona epidemic. A special economic package of 20 lakh crore rupees, equivalent to about 10 percent of the country's GDP, was also announced to overcome the economic difficulties during the Corona period.