This budget was presented two months after the country’s independenceThe first Finance Minister was economic expert R K Shanmukham ChettyThe first budget was also a deficit budget of about Rs 26 crore
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is going to present the General Budget 2024 in Parliament today. An interim budget was presented before the elections. This is the full budget after that. But do you know who presented the first budget of independent India? This budget was presented just two months after the independence of the country.
The first Union Budget of independent India was presented by India’s first Finance Minister RK Shanmukham Chetty on 26 November 1947. Chetty was born in 1892. He was a lawyer, politician, and economist.
Before assuming office as the Finance Minister of India, Chettiar was the Speaker of India’s Central Legislative Assembly from 1933 to 1935. Shanmukham Chettiar was also the Diwan of Kochi State in India from 1935-1941. He served as the Finance Minister of India from 1947 to 1949.
These are the main points of the first budget
The first budget of India was presented in November 1947 without any tax proposal. The total revenue estimate of the budget was Rs 171.15 crore. While the fiscal deficit at that time was around Rs 26.24 crore. The total expenditure estimate for the year was Rs 197.29 crore.
Of the total expenditure, Rs 92.74 crore was estimated to be spent on security matters. According to the website of the Department of Economic Affairs, the budget statement presented by Shanmukham Chetty covered only the period of seven and a half months from August 15, 1947 to March 31, 1948.
RK Shanmukham Chetty started his budget speech with these words- I stand up to present the first budget of free and independent India. This occasion will be considered historic, and it is a matter of pride for me that as a Finance Minister, I have got the responsibility to present this budget. However, later he had to resign.
On 3 May 1953, A. K. Shanmukham Chetty suffered a heart attack which left his condition unstable and then on 5 May 1953, he died of a second heart attack.
Tags: budget session, Finance Minister
FIRST PUBLISHED : July 23, 2024, 10:36 IST