Budgets and FMs from 47 thru 08
Have you heard the name of R.K. Shanmugam Chetty ? May be not a very popular name, but he goes down in history as the Finance Minister who presented Independent India's first Budget on 26.11.1947 and went on to present the next budget on 28.02.1948. As we wait for PC's latest budget, it may be interesting to know a few things about the budgets and the great Finance Ministers who unfolded the great mysteries of the nation's fiscal affairs before a packed Parliament and an anxious nation. The Budget speech is perhaps the most awaited speech in parliament and one which receives the largest coverage – in fact larger than the President's address or the most heated exchanges. Now that budget speech is telecast live, you can see your MPs in their best in the limelight areas inside Parliament. The seats near and behind the FM's seat are always crowded.
From 1947 till today 70 budgets have been presented by 23 Finance Ministers. They are
1. C. SUBRAMANYAM
2. CD DESHMUKH
3. CHARAN SINGH
4. H.M. PATEL
5. INDIRA GANDHI
6. JASWANT SINGH
7. JAWAHARLAL NEHRU
8. JOHN MATHAI
9. MADHU DANDAVATHE
10. MANMOHAN SINGH
11. MORARJI DESAI
12. N.D. TIWARI
13. P. CHIDAMBARAM
14. PRANAB MUKHERJEE
15. R. VENKATARAMAN
16. RAJIV GANDHI
17. RK SHANMUGAM SHETTY
18. S.B.CHAVAN
19. SACHIDANANDA CHOUDHARY
20. TT KRISNAMACHARI
21. V.P. SINGH
22. YASHWANT SINHA
23. YB CHAVAN
Click here for the year wise budgets and the FMs who presented them.
There is a belief that Dr. Manmohan Singh has presented the highest number of budgets – No, that credit goes to Mr. Morarji Desai who presented a record ten budgets. Dr. Singh is not even in the second place. That place goes to Dr. CD Deshmukh , who had presented seven budgets. Of course both Singh and Deshmukh share a common legacy, the Reserve Bank of India . And with today's budget, PC moves to the second place along with CD Deshmukh . In the third place is of course the good Doctor Manmohan Singh , who has six budget speeches to his credit. And he shares this honour with Mr. Yashwant Sinha . But Dr. Singh has a perhaps unbreakable record. He is the only Finance Minster to present a budget consecutively for six years each in a different year.
While three Prime Ministers, Jawaharlal Nehru , Indira Gandhi and Rajeev Gandhi presented Budgets as also Finance Ministers, four Finance Ministers went on to become Prime Ministers – Morarji Desai , Charan Singh , VP Singh and Manmohan Singh . Strangely no Finance Minister turned Prime Minister lasted the full term as PM. Dr Manmohan Singh holds the record for the longest duration as PM from the FMs ' Club. While one FM contested for Presidentship , another, Mr. R Venkataraman went on to become the President of India. The FM's post is a fairly stable one – Prime Ministers choose their FMs well and once chosen, most often they remain chosen. Apart from the Prime Ministers Nehru, Indira and Rajeev who presented their own budgets, the Finance Ministers who presented only a single budget in their career are Charan Singh, ND Tiwari , Madhu Dandavathe and SB Chavan . But at least two of them will go down in history for their path breaking budgets. Charan Singh abolished Excise duty on tobacco while Dandavathe abolished Gold Control Act.
Budget speeches are often long and boring and Finance Misters though reel out serious statistics about the wealth (or its absence) of the nation, many of them have tried to spice up their speeches with humour, quotes, poetry in Hindi, Urdu and Tamil and the whole country heaves a collective sigh of relief if the FM has not imposed any fresh taxes. Many Finance Ministers used to carry separately favourite quotes and jokes to intersperse their budget speeches with and these would not form part of the budget speeches printed and circulated, but would be lapped up by the press. In providing Budget humour, Dr. Manmohan Singh was perhaps the best. In the days when he was accused of bowing to World Bank pressures, in a Budget speech, he said, “ I am doing this under pressure from WB” , “ and WB is not World Bank”, continued Dr. Singh in his serious style, “ but West Bengal”, . While announcing certain benefits for Mumbai, where Dr. Singh lived for a long time, he said, “Voting Congress is not only good politics, but good economics”. Congress had won the civic elections in Mumbai just then. While giving benefits to the North Eastern states, he said, “ This is in gratitude to the East for providing a home to a homeless Finance Minster”.
While exempting khandasari sugar, Mr. Pranab Mukherjee said, “I am told khanadasari sugar is good for health and if this improves the health of the nation, the credit should come to me and not to my colleague, the honourable Minister for Health'.
Justifying the increase in the r ate of duty on cigarettes, Y. B. Chavan stated in his budget speech, “There comes perhaps a time in the life of every smoker when the concern for his own health begins to outweigh the loyalty to an old and faithful companion. For those who cannot shake off their consuming passion, there is at least the consolation that the more taxes they pay, the more they serve the common cause. I am, therefore, fortified in my decision to increase once again the taxation on cigarettes by the thought that whichever way my smoking friends react, there would be a net gain to national welfare.”
Even the stiff Morarji had his quota of humour when it came to Budget speeches, “In a situation where both the husband and the wife are tax-payers in their own right, it would be improper for any outsider to decide as to who is dependent on whom. At present, we avoid this ticklish question by allowing both parties to claim a spouse allowance. This still leaves open the question as to who brings more tax benefit to the partnership through marriage. To eliminate this unintended strain on the relationship of marriage, I propose to provide that where both the husband and the wife have taxable incomes, the spouse allowance will be available to neither.”
Pranab Mukherji , while exempting p ressure cookers from excise duty, said, “Housewives in India , as elsewhere, have been complaining for some time about the rise in their expenses. As a measure of economising on their fuel bills without affecting the nutritional and, hopefully, the gastronomic value of what they cook, I propose to exempt totally pressure cookers from excise duties. They would now find someone else in their kitchens letting off steam.”
When Pandit Nehru presented his only budget after the sudden resignation of TT Krishnamachari , he skipped the dots and decimal points. When a member pointed this out, the Prime Minister remained unruffled and said "In matters of high finance, I am a bird of passage."
Yam Raj (death) and kar Raj (tax) are two certainties of life – while Yam Raj comes only once in our life Kar Raj is with us every day – between the two, there is an annual budget – happy budget!