10 lesser-known facts about the Union Budget

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present Union Budget 2020 on February 1. This is the second full-time budget of the re-elected NDA government, which got a landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As India witnesses yet another budget, here are some lesser-known facts:

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present Union Budget 2020 on February 1. This is the second budget of the re-elected NDA government, which got a landslide victory in the 2019 Lok Sabha Elections under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi.

As all eyes are now on the Budget 2020, here are some of the lesser-known facts about the Union Budget:

1. The first Indian Budget was presented by James Wilson on February 18, 1869 after Indian Budget was introduced on April 7, 1860 by the East India Company. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

2. The first Budget of Independent India was presented by the then Finance Minister R K Shanmukham Chetty on November 26, 1947. (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

3. Till 1955, budget was only printed in English language. However, from 1955-56, budget started getting printed in both languages, Hindi and English. (iStock Photo)

4. Indira Gandhi was the first woman to have presented the Union Budget in the parliament. (DH File Photo)

5. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered the longest Budget speech ever in independent India's history while presenting Union Budget 2019. She clocked a total time of two hours 15 minutes. (PTI Photo)

6. Former Finance Minister Morarji Desai has presented the highest number of budgets at 10 times. (iStock Photo)

7. KC Neogy and HN Bahuguna were the only two finance ministers who did not present any Indian Budget. (iStock Photo)

8. For the first time in 92 years, in 2017, the Union Budget was merged with the Rail Budget, which was usually presented separately. (iStock Photo)

9. In 2001, NDA Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha changed the time of budget presentation from 5 pm to 11 am. Since then, this tradition has been continued further. (PTI Photo)

10. The word 'budget' has been derived from 'bougette' which refers to a leather bag in French. (iStock Photo)