5 interesting things about Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget ever since she took charge as FM

New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will today (Tuesday, February 1) present her fourth straight Union Budget when she presents financial statements and tax proposals for fiscal year 2022-23 (April 2022 to March 2023). The Budget presentation will begin with a speech of the Finance Minister from around 11 am.

Here’s looking at 5 interesting things about Nirmala Sitharaman’s budget ever since she took charge as FM

1. In 2019, Sitharaman became the second woman to have presented the budget after Indira Gandhi, who had presented the budget for the financial year 1970-71.

2. Sitharaman holds the record for delivering the longest speech when she spoke for 2 hours and 42 minutes while presenting the Union Budget 2020-21 on February 1, 2020. With two pages still remaining, she had to cut short her speech as she felt unwell. She asked the Speaker to consider the remaining part of the speech as read. During the course of this speech, she broke her own record of July 2019 - her maiden Budget - when she had spoken for 2 hours and 17 minutes.

3. The year 2021 will also be remembered for going paperless for the first time. Touted to be a historic move, it was for the first time in the history of independent India that the budget 2021 papers were not be printed. The budget documents are generally printed at the Finance Ministry`s in-house printing press in the North Block. However, the decision was taken as the printing process would require several people to stay at the press for around a fortnight amid the coronavirus fears.

4. In 2020, she did away with a colonial-era tradition of carrying Budget papers in a briefcase, and introduced the Budget `Bahi Khata` or a ledger, enclosed in a red cloth folder and tied with a string.

5. FM Sitharaman launched ‘Union Budget Mobile App’ ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget 2021-22. The Union Budget Mobile App was launched for hassle-free access of Budget documents by Members of Parliament (MPs) and the general public. The mobile App allows complete access to 14 Union Budget documents, including the Budget Speech, Annual Financial Statement (commonly known as Budget), Demand for Grants (DG), Finance Bill etc. as prescribed by the Constitution. The mobile app is bilingual (English & Hindi) and is available on both Android and iOS platforms. The Union Budget 2022-23 would also be available on the Mobile App after the process of Budget presentation has been completed on 1st February 2022 in the Parliament.