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“Budget 2024: Nirmala Sitharaman Poised to Make History”

On July 23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is poised to make history by presenting her seventh consecutive budget, surpassing the record of Morarji Desai, who presented six consecutive budgets during his tenure from 1959 to 1963 and again from 1967 to 1969. Desai, however, still holds the record for the most number of budget presentations in total, having delivered ten budgets while serving as Finance Minister under Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri.

Sitharaman’s tenure as Finance Minister has been marked by significant economic reforms and policies aimed at fostering growth and stability. In the 2023-24 budget, she introduced changes to the tax slabs under the new tax regime, easing the burden on the middle class by adjusting the income tax bracket from ₹5 lakh to ₹7 lakh. Her tenure also saw record-breaking GST collections, with April’s monthly collection hitting ₹2.1 lakh crore, reflecting a robust annual growth of 12.4%.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, under her leadership, provided relief to businesses by decriminalizing various procedural and technical violations of the Companies Act in 2019 and 2020. Sitharaman has also implemented efficiency-enhancing measures such as the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), faceless income tax assessment, and the ‘file and forget’ system for centralizing company registration. During the pandemic, she introduced several stimulus packages and policy reforms to support and boost the economy. Sitharaman also holds the record for the longest budget speech, which she delivered on February 1, 2020, lasting two hours and 40 minutes.

Despite this, she had to cut her speech short, leaving two pages unread. The history of budget presentations in India is rich, with notable finance ministers like P. Chidambaram, who presented nine budgets across different terms under Prime Ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, and Pranab Mukherjee, who delivered eight budgets from 1982 to 1984 and 2009 to 2012.

Yashwant Sinha also presented seven budgets as finance minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government, and C.D. Deshmukh, known for his significant contributions to India’s first and second Five-Year Plans, delivered seven budgets as well. As Sitharaman steps into this historic moment, she not only breaks records but continues to shape India’s economic landscape with her visionary policies and reforms.

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Author:- Apoorva Arora

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