Indian Union Budget 2021-22: Only one day is left to present the budget for the financial year 2021-22. It will be presented by the country’s first full-time female finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman. Earlier, Indira Gandhi presented the budget as the interim finance minister. The country’s general budget or interim budget (budget presented in the election year) is usually presented by the Union Finance Minister or the Acting Finance Minister, but there have been occasions when the Prime Minister has also presented the budget. Firstly, the country’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru presented the country’s budget as Prime Minister. Apart from this, some such finance ministers have also presented the budget which later also became the Prime Minister of the country.
Those presenting the budget as Prime Minister
- Jawaharlal Nehru: The first Prime Minister of the country, Jawaharlal Nehru, first started this practice. He presented the general budget in 1958. Nehru assumed the responsibility of presenting the budget as Prime Minister due to the untimely resignation of the then Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari. Krishnamachari had to resign from the post of finance minister due to the Mundhra scandal. This scam is related to LIC. LIC bought shares worth Rs 1.26 lakh in the non-performing company of Kolkata-based businessman Haridas Mundhra, which resulted in a loss of about Rs 36 lakh. There was also irregularity in the purchase of shares. On this, Congress MP and Prime Minister Nehru’s son-in-law Feroze Gandhi attacked the Nehru government. In this case, the pressure on the role of the then Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari started increasing and finally, he had to resign from his post.
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- Indira Gandhi: Indira Gandhi, the first woman Prime Minister of the country, worked as the first Finance Minister of the country and she presented the General Budget in 1970. He took over as the Finance Minister after the resignation of the then Finance Minister Morraji Desai and presented the budget. Morarji Desai was handling both the Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister at that time. In July 1969, Indira Gandhi took over the post of Finance Ministry and asked her to take up the post of Deputy Prime Minister. On this Morarji Desai resigned from the then cabinet. This was the time when Indira Gandhi nationalized 14 big banks. On the issue of nationalization of banks, Morarji Desai resigned as Finance Minister.
- Rajiv Gandhi: After Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi presented the country’s general budget in 1987 as Prime Minister. He took over as Finance Minister following the resignation of the then Finance Minister VP Singh. VP Singh was removed from the Finance Ministry and handed over the charge of the Ministry of Defense due to high-profile raids at several suspended tax evaders (tax evasion), including Dhirubhai Ambani and Amitabh Bachchan.
Finance Minister, who later became Prime Minister
- Morarji Desai: Morarji Desai’s name will come first in this list. He has the record of presenting the budget ten times at most. It has an interim budget twice. However, Morarji Desai did not present the budget when he was Prime Minister and Haribhai M Patel and Charan Singh were Finance Ministers during his Prime Ministership. Desai presented the budget during the prime ministership of Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.
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- VP Singh: After Morarji Desai, VP Singh was the Finance Minister in this list who later took over as Prime Minister. VP Singh took over as finance minister during Rajiv Gandhi’s prime ministership. When VP Singh became Prime Minister, Madhu Dandavate was finance.
- Manmohan Singh: Former Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh presented the policy-changing budget of the country about 30 years ago and after about 15 years he became the Prime Minister of the country. Manmohan Singh presented the budget in Narasimha Rao’s government. He first presented the budget in 1991, which changed the business policies of the country.
