The Union Budget: 10 facts that will amaze you

Arun Jaitley

The 2017 Union Budget will be presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday, February 1. As a build up to the big day, we look at some interesting facts and trivia. All pics/AFP

The first Union Budget of independent India was presented by R. K. Shanmukham Chetty on November 26, 1947

On February 29 in 1964 and 1968, Morarji Desai became the only finance minister to present the Union budget on his birthday

In Pictures: 10 interesting facts about the Union Budget

After Morarji Desai's resignation, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister, took over the Ministry of Finance, and became the only woman to hold the post of the Finance Minister

Current President Pranab Mukherjee was the first Rajya Sabha member to hold the Finance portfolio. He presented the annual budgets for 1982-83, 1983-84 and 1984-85

Rajiv Gandhi presented the budget for 1987-89. He became the third Prime Minister to present a budget after his mother and grandfather

Manmohan Singh, under P. V. Narasimha Rao, in his annual budgets from 1992-93, opened the economy, and encouraged foreign investments

Until 1999, the Union Budget was announced at 5:00 pm on the last working day of February. This practice was inherited from the colonial era, as the British Parliament would pass the budget in the noon, and India in the evening of the day. Yashwant Sinha, the then Finance Minister of India in the NDA government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee changed the tradition by announcing the 2001 Union Budget at 11 am

There will be a first this year as well. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, will present the budget on the first day of February, again a deviation from the Colonial era

That's not all. The Rail Budget, which has been presented separately for 92 years, has been merged with Union Budget

The printing of budget documents starts around a week before the presentation in Parliament. This is done in a ‘halwa ceremony' in which halwa is prepared in large quantities and served to also those involved. Halwa remains in the North Block office until the budget is presented