The Union Budget for financial year 2025-26 is scheduled to be presented in parliament by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, 2025. The lock in period for the Budget began on Friday after the traditional ‘halwa’ ceremony.
India's first Union Budget was presented on April 7, 1860, by James Wilson (Wikimedia-James Wilson)
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This will be Nirmala Sitharaman's second time presenting a full-fledged Budget under PM Modi's third term and her eighth budget presentation in Parliament. She has presented six annual and two interim budgets under the successive terms of the NDA-led government.
Who presented the first Union Budget?
James Wilson, the finance member of the Indian council and founder of the newspaper The Economist, presented India's first Union Budget on April 7, 1860.
The Budget was presented following the Revolt of 1857 to reform the country's financial system.
Queen Victoria sent James Wilson to India to establish a reliable tax framework and introduce a new paper currency. In the landmark budget, Wilson was responsible for introducing the concept of income tax in India.
Author Sabyasachi Bhattacharya in his book, The Financial Foundation of the British Raj, noted that an introduction of a license tax had previously failed in India and the idea of direct taxes had created a sense of uncertainty in the country.
Wilson not only discarded the failed license tax to introduce a more effective version of it, along with income tax. In his Budget presentation he also stipulated that individuals earning below ₹200 annually would be exempt from paying taxes.
Among his many successful initiatives, Wilson introduced an auditing system based on the British model to monitor monthly government expenditure.
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James Wilson tragically passed away due to dysentery in Kolkata in August, 1860, just a few months after India's first Budget presentation
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Home/India News/Who was the man behind India's first Union Budget in 1860?
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