This Finance minister broke the tradition of the British!
Only a few more days are left for the presentation of the General Budget 2025. On 1 february 2025 at 11 am, the Finance minister of the country, Nirmala Sitharaman, will present the 14th budget of the Modi government in front of the country. But, do you know when it was decided in the country that the time for presenting the budget would be 11 am on 1 February. Has this always been the case? Let's know about it in detail today.
Who fixed the time of 11 o'clock?
Since independence, the budget has been presented at 5 pm on the last working day of February. This time was chosen due to the time difference between india and the United Kingdom. India's time is 5.5 hours ahead of british Summer Time and presenting the budget at 5 pm (IST) ensured that it was announced during the day in Britain.
But, in 1999, Yashwant Sinha changed this practice in the government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Sinha, who was the Finance minister of india between 1998 and 2002, suggested that the budget should be presented at 11 am so that there is enough time to do a thorough analysis of the figures.
Why was it presented on february 1?
For almost 20 years now, the Union Budget was presented on the last working day of February. But in 2017, this was changed. The then Finance minister Arun Jaitley announced that from 2017, the budget would be presented on february 1. Jaitley also announced that if the budget is presented on the last day of february, the Center will not get enough time to formulate new policies for the year starting from april 1. This is the reason why the budget started being presented on february 1.
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