Union Budget 2025: Who presented India's first Budget?

The Union Budget of India is a crucial annual document presented by the government, outlining the planned revenues and expenditures for the upcoming financial year. It significantly influences economic policies, priorities, and strategies for growth, directing the allocation of resources to key sectors such as education, healthcare, infrastructure, defence, and social welfare. The budget also describes its source of revenue, primarily through taxes, and outlines strategies for fiscal policy and deficit management. Thus, it can influence investor confidence and market reactions, affecting business growth, financial markets, and even the economy. The allocation for social welfare schemes, subsidies, and public services provided in the budget has a direct impact on the livelihood of millions of citizens, thereby addressing poverty, unemployment, and inequality. The budget also affects inflation and interest rates, which impacts the cost of living and borrowing. On February 1, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will introduce the Union Budget for 2025–2026 in Parliament. Who first introducded Budget in India? In 1860, James Wilson, a Scotsman, introduced India's first budget . He arrived in India in 1859, just as the British government was under pressure from the Sepoy Mutiny and the aftermath of the 1857 insurrection. Wilson had a thorough understanding of markets and business, and he was regarded as someone who might help the establishment recover from its difficult financial predicament. As stated in the book Financial Foundations of the British Raj, "He [Wilson] introduced for the first time in India a financial budget framed upon the English model – inspired the public mind with fresh confidence – brought together the threads of finance which had been broken and scattered by a military and political convulsion – stimulated the operations of the Military Finance Commission to review the numerous branches of civil expenditure – reviewed the existing system of audit and account – besides discharging the multifarious duties devolving on a finance minister and a member of the general government,” Sabyashachi Bhattacharya quotes Wilson's understudy and later successor, Sir Richard Temple, in the book 'Financial Foundations of the British Raj'. James Wilson was also responsible for the implementation of the Income Tax Act, which sparked widespread outrage. While his budget provided India with a vital financial governance tool, his income tax act greatly disappointed both businesses and the zamindars, or landed class.