By Admin 
Budget 2026: The country’s general budget will be presented on 1 February. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will present the budget in Parliament for the 9th consecutive time. This is a new record in itself. Generally, the responsibility of presenting the budget rests with the Finance Minister, but there were many such occasions in the country when the Prime Ministers of the country had to come forward and present the budget. Let us know when and why this happened?
Jawaharlal Nehru
The first Prime Minister to present the Union Budget was Jawaharlal Nehru. He presented the budget for the financial year 1958-59. In fact, the then Finance Minister TT Krishnamachari had to resign from his post on February 12, 1958, due to his name appearing in the currency scam. Justice Chagla Commission had found him guilty of corruption in the Mundra scam. After his departure, Prime Minister Nehru came forward and took charge of the Finance Ministry and presented the budget himself.
Starting his budget speech, he mentioned all the unusual circumstances under which he was presenting the budget. In this budget presented by him, ‘Gift Tax’ proposal was made. In this, transfer of property worth more than Rs 10,000 was brought under the ambit of ‘Gift Tax’. However, it was also mentioned that there will be no tax on gift up to Rs 1 lakh to the wife.
Indira Gandhi
Former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi also presented the Union Budget in 1970. In 1969, when Morarji Desai resigned from the post of Finance Minister, Indira Gandhi had to come forward. Taking charge of the Finance Ministry, he presented the budget in February 1970. In fact, after the death of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister, which Morarji Desai had opposed.
Due to internal strife in the party and differences with Indira Gandhi, Congress expelled him from the party on November 12, 1969. After this, Indira Gandhi, taking charge of the Finance Ministry, presented the budget on February 28, 1970, in which the limit for ‘Gift Tax’ was reduced from Rs 10000 to Rs 5000. During this period, a major change was also made in the indirect tax, the tax on cigarettes was directly increased from 3 percent to 22 percent.
Rajiv Gandhi
The budget for the financial year 1987-88 was presented by the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, in which he laid emphasis on technology as well as modernization. In this budget presented by him, he had presented the proposal of corporate tax for the first time. Under this, tax was imposed on the earnings of domestic and foreign companies.
In view of the investigation into the scam related to the Bofors gun deal, VP Singh’s dispute with Rajiv Gandhi was continuously increasing. Due to this, under some pressure, he had to resign from his post. After his resignation shortly before the budget in January 1987, Rajiv Gandhi presented the budget while retaining the Finance Ministry.
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