Union Budget 2023 – Trivia Part 2

The Union budget 2023 presentation is just around the corner. Let us look at some trivia regarding the Union budgets from the past.

1. Iconic Budgets: The 1973–74 budget presented by Yashwantrao B. Chavan under the administration of Indira Gandhi is known as the "Black Budget" because it had a 550–crore fiscal deficit. India was experiencing severe financial difficulty at the time.
2. Carrot and Stick Budget: On February 28, 1986, VP Singh delivered the Union budget, which marked the beginning of India's transition away from the license raj system. The budget was known as the "Carrot and Stick" budget because it provided both rewards and penalties. In addition to introducing the MODVAT (Modified Value Added Tax) credit, it also began a vigorous campaign against smugglers, black marketers, and tax evaders in an effort to reduce the cascading effect of tax that consumers had to pay.
3. Epochal Budget: The "Epochal Budget" of Manmohan Singh, presented in 1991 while the PV Narasimha Rao government was in power, marked the end of license raj and the start of the age of economic liberalization. Presented at a time when India's economy was on the verge of collapse, it included measures to encourage exports and reduced customs duties from 220 to 150 percent.
4. Dream Budget: The Laffer Curve theory was applied by P Chidambaram in the 1997–1998 budget to reduce tax rates and raise revenue. He enacted a number of significant tax reforms, including a voluntary disclosure of income scheme to collect black money, and reduced the maximum marginal income tax rates for individuals from 40% to 30% and for domestic firms from 35% to 35%. The "Dream Budget" also reduced customs duties to 40% and simplified the excise duty system.
5. Millennium Budget: In 2000, Yashwant Sinha's Millennium Budget, which gradually phased out incentives for software exporters and decreased customs duty on 21 products like computers and computer equipment, established the foundation for the development of India's Information Technology (IT) industry.
6. Rollback Budget: Because most of the initiatives in Yashwant Sinha's 2002–03 budget for the NDA administration led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee were abandoned or rolled back, it is known as the Rollback Budget.
7. Once-in-a-century Budget: On February 1, 2021, Nirmala Sitharaman unveiled what she referred to as a "once-in-a-century budget" that aimed to revitalize the third-largest economy in Asia by investing in infrastructure and healthcare while depending on a vigorous privatization agenda and high tax receipts.

For reading part 1 of the Union budget trivia, click here

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