Union Budget of India Historical Timeline
Important budgets in Indian history that turned out as major milestones.
Pre-Liberalisation
• February 18, 1869 – The Budget was first presented in India by James Wilson
• November 26, 1947 – RK Shanmukham Chetty presented the first Budget of Independent India
• February 28, 1950 – The first Budget of the Republic of India was presented by John Mathai
• February 29, 1964 – Morarji Desai presented the Budget on his birthday
• February 28, 1970 – Indira Gandhi was the first woman Finance Minister to present the Budget
• February 28, 1973 – YB Chavan presented what came to be called the ‘Black Budget’ due to a budget deficit of Rs 550 crore
• February 28, 1986 – VP Singh introduced the Modified Value Added Tax (MODVAT)
• February 28, 1987 – Rajiv Gandhi Introduced the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT)
Post Liberalisation
• July 24, 1991 – Manmohan Singh opened the economy to encourage foreign investments
• February 28, 1997 – Called the ‘Dream Budget’ P Chidambaram launched the VDIS Scheme
• February 28, 2001 – Yashwant Sinha changed the timing of the Budget speech to 11:00 am
• July 10, 2014 – Arun Jaitley presented the first Budget of Narendra Modi-led NDA government