Source: The Economic Times.
India
had as many as 30 finance ministers after it secured independence from
imperialist British rule in 1947. And, these gentlemen shaped up
India’s economy which has grown in size to about US$ 800 billion. India
has also emerged as the fastest growing economy after China and become a
major provider of services and goods to the world.
www.economictimes.com
takes down the memory lane introducing every single individual who held
finance portfolio. The story of India’s evolution as a major economic
power is an interesting saga intertwined with political happenings.
While three Prime Ministers held the coveted portfolio of Finance, only
four ministers presented more than five budgets.
Liaquat Ali Khan: 1946-1947 (interim government):
Nawabzada
Liaquat Ali Khan (1896 - 1951) was an Indian Muslim politician and a
leading member of the All India Muslim League (AIML). He played an
influential role in the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan.
He was closely involved in the negotiations over the form of
independence to be granted to India after World War II. When the Indian
political leadership asked the Muslim League to send its nominees for
representation in the interim government, Liaquat Ali was asked to lead
the League group in the Union Cabinet. He was assigned the finance
portfolio by the first Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru.
Acknowledged as Jinnah's "right hand" and as such Liaquat was the
obvious choice to become prime minister of independent Pakistan in 1947.
He went on to become the country's senior most leader after Jinnah's
death in 1948.
R K Shanmukham Chetty: 1947-1948
Independent
India's first Budget was presented by the country's first finance
minister, R K Shanmukham Chetty, on November 26, 1947. And, that was an
interim Budget. It was a review of the economy and no new taxes were
proposed as the budget day for 1948-49 was just 95 days away. He
resigned shortly. It is believed that he was asked to resign by
Jawaharlal Nehru, the Prime Minister of India due to a minor dereliction
of duty by a subordinate official, so as to ensure probity.
K C Neogy: 1948
K
C Neogy then took charge. He was the second Finance Minister of free
India. He held office for just 35 days and didn't get an opportunity to
present a Budget.
John Mathai: 1948-1950
John
Mathai was an economist who served as India's first Railway Minister
and subsequently as Finance Minister, taking office shortly after the
presentation of India's first Budget, in 1948. He presented two budgets
for 1949-50 and 1950-51. He resigned after presenting the 1950 Budget
following protests against vesting large powers with the Planning
Commission and P C Mahalanobis.
C D Deshmukh: 1950-1956
CD
Deshmukh was also the first Indian Governor of the Reserve Bank of
India. He presented an interim budget for 1951-52. The first general
elections in post-independence era were held between December - February
1952. Deshmukh was given the Finance portfolio after the new ministry
assumed office. He felt honoured to present the first budget to the
first-time elected members of Lok Sabha. Hindi crept into the budget
documents beginning 1955-56.
His stewardship of the country's finances was marked by prudence and
humane perspective. He provided the much desired vision to deal with
the changing financial needs of a young, independent and under-developed
country like India. He made significant contributions to the
formulation and implementation of the country's First and Second Five
Year Plans that provided strong base for the years ahead. He was
responsible for ensuring social control of the financial structure such
as the enactment of a new Companies Act, and nationalisation of the
Imperial Bank of India and life insurance companies. He resigned from the Union Cabinet after protesting separation of Mumbai from Maharastra.
T T Krishnamachari: 1957-1958
T
T Krishnamachari took over from him. He found that the calculations
made in the budget for 1955-56 had gone awry. So, on November 30, 1956
in a five-thousand-word speech he described the changed economic
situation and underlined the need to levy fresh taxes even before the
next budget was presented. The Second General Elections were held in
February-March 1957 and he presented an interim budget for 1957-58 on
March 14, 1957 and the full budget subsequently. He
was instrumental in setting up the country's three major steel plants
and financial institutions like IDBI, ICICI and UTI. He introduced
path-breaking tax reforms during his stint as Finance Minister. Krishnamachari had to resign in Feburary 1958 when one man Justice Chagla Commission found him guilty of corruption.
Jawaharlal Nehru: 1958-1959
Following
Krishnamachari's resignation, the then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal
Nehru, himself took charge of the Finance portfolio and presented the
budget for 1958-59. In the opening para of his budget speech Nehru had
said ... "According to custom, the budget statement for the coming year
has to be presented today (February 28, 1958). By an unexpected and
unhappy chain of circumstances the Finance Minister, who would normally
have made this statement this afternoon is no longer with us. This
heavy duty has fallen upon me almost at the last moment."
FM who presented maximum no. of budgets
Morarji Desai: 1959-1964
Morarji
Desai became the next Finance Minister and he presented the maximum
number of budgets so far- ten. They included five annual and one
interim budget during his first stint. In his second tenure, he
presented three full budgets and one interim as Finance Minister and
Deputy Prime Minister. His annual budgets were for the years from
1959-60 to 1963-64 and the interim budget for 1962-63.
T T Krishnamachari: 1964-1966
After
the first stint of Morarji Desai, Krishnamachari once again became the
Finance Minister for the second time. He presented the budgets for
1964-65 and 1965-66. Embarking
upon measures needed for providing social security, Krishnamachari
expanded the pension scheme to cover family members of the deceased
government servants by introducing a new Family Pension Scheme in 1964.
He planned schemes like the Rajasthan Canal Schemes, Dandakaranya and
Damodar Valley Projects. The Neyveli Lignite Projects owe their
existence to the fillip given by Krishnamachari. He resigned in late 1966.
Sachindra Choudhuri: 1966-1967
Sachindra
Choudhuri presented the budget for 1966-67 after the resignation of T T
Krishnamachari. It was an interim arrangement.
Morarji Desai 1967-1969
After
the fourth General Elections in 1967, Morarji Desai once again became
the Finance Minister. This was his second stint. The annual budgets
for three years 1967-68 to 1969-70 and the interim budget for 1967-68
were also presented by him. The interim budget for 1967-68 was on
account of the General Elections in March 1967. He was the only Finance
Minister to have had the opportunity to present two budgets on his
birthday - in 1964 and 1968. He was born on February 29. Desai resigned in July 1969 in protest against the nationalisation of major banks by an ordinance on a Saturday evening. He felt social control of banks would regulate their functioning and make them accountable.
Indira Gandhi: 1969-71
After
Morarji Desai's resignation, Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister
assumed the Finance portfolio. So far, she has been the only woman
Finance Minister.
Y B Chavan: 1971-1975
Following
the Fifth General Elections in March, 1971, Y B Chavan became the
Finance Minister. He presented the interim budget for 1971-72 and the
final budgets for four years - 1971-72 to 1974-75.
C Subramaniam: 1975-1977
C Subramaniam presented the budgets between 1975-76 and 1976-77. He cast the widest net to increase revenue through excise.
H M Patel: 1977-1979
After
the Seventh General Elections in March 1977, the first non-Congress
Ministry under the then Janata Party assumed office at the centre.
Morarji Desai was elected as the Prime Minister. H M Patel held the
Finance portfolio. He presented the interim budget for 1977-78. He
also presented the annual budget for 1978-79.
Chaudhary Charan Singh: 1979-1980
The budget for 1979-80 was presented by Chaudhary Charan Singh who was also Deputy Prime Minister.
Ramaswamy Venkataraman: 1980-1982
After
the seventh General Elections in January, 1980, the Congress Party
returned to power. Venkataraman presented the interim and final budgets
for 1980-81 and the annual budget for 1981-82. Later he rose to become
the country's Vice President and President.
Pranab Mukherjee 1982-1984
Pranab
Mukherjee presented the annual budgets for 1982-83, 1983-84 and
1984-85. He was the first Rajya Sabha member to hold the Finance
portfolio.
V P Singh 1985-1987
After
the Eighth General Elections in 1984, V P Singh presented the annual
budgets for 1985-86 and 1986-87. There was no interim budget since the
elections were held in December 1984. He was part of the ministry
headed by Rajiv Gandhi. He
oversaw the gradual relaxation of the license raj that Rajiv had in
mind. He also gave extra power to the Enforcement Directorate of the
Finance Ministry, that was given charge of tracking down tax evaders.
Following a number of high-profile raids on suspected evaders -
including Dhirubhai Ambani - Rajiv Gandhi was forced to sack him as
Finance Minister, possibly because many of the raids were conducted on industrialists who had supported the Congress financially in the past.
Rajiv Gandhi: 1987-1988
Rajiv
Gandhi presented the budget for 1987-88. He was the third Prime
Minister to present a budget after his mother, and grand father. The
exercise in zero-based budget began in 1987-88. The zero-based
budgeting is a process of review, analysis and evolution for each budget
request in order to justify its inclusion or exclusion from the
integrated whole budget before it is finally approved. In India, the
zero-based budgeting was implemented in three phases - one third in the
first year, two thirds in the second year and fully from the third year.
It is a continuous process.
N D Tiwari: 1988-1989
N D Tiwari presented the budget for the year 1988-1989.
S B Chavan 1989-1990
S.B. Chavan did the budget exercise for 1989-90. He also served twice as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra.
Madhu Dandavate: 1990-1991
After
the General Elections in November 1989, the then Janata Dal
Government's Finance Minister Madhu Dandavate presented the annual
budget for 1990-91.
Yashwant Sinha: 1991-1992
Following
subsequent political developments, Yashwant Sinha became the Finance
Minister and presented the interim budget for 1991-92.
Manmohan Singh 1991-1996
Manmohan
Singh served as the governor of the Reserve Bank of India in the late
1980s, and was given the portfoilo of finance in 1991 by Prime Minister
Narasimha Rao. He presented the final budget for 1991-92 in July 1991.
This was the first occasion when the interim and final budgets were
presented by two ministers of two different political parties. The next
four annual budgets of Shri Manmohan Singh had an orientation different
from the one followed till then. The
economic liberalisation package pushed by Singh and Rao opened the
nation to foreign direct investment and reduced the red tape that had
previously impeded business growth. The liberalisation was
prompted by an acute balance-of-payments crisis whereby the Indian
government was left without sufficient reserves to meet its obligations,
and had begun preparations to mortgage its gold reserves to the Bank of
England in order to obtain the cash reserves needed to run the country.
As such, he was instrumental in making of an opened economy. He reduced the peak import duty from 300 plus to 50 per cent. He will be remembered best for making the rupee convertible in current account in just two phases. Introducing the concept of 'service tax' was his idea.
Jaswant Singh 1996
He
served as Finance minister in the short-lived government of Atal Bihari
Vajpayee, which lasted just from May 16, 1996, to June 1, 1996.
P Chidambaram 1996-1998
The
general elections held in 1996, paved way for a coalition government
supported by the left parties. This came as a big break for
Chidambaram, who was given the key cabinet portfolio of Finance; this
put him in the limelight. The final budget for 1996-97 was presented by
P Chidambaram of the then Tamil Maanila Congress. It was the second
time that interim and final budgets were presented by two ministers of
different political parties. Following a constitutional crisis, the
I.K. Gujral Ministry was on its way out and a special session of
Parliament was convened only to pass Shri Chidambaram's 1997-98 budget.
It was passed without a debate. Although the coalition government was a
short-lived one (it fell in 1998), it
showed Chidambaram's competence as Finance Minister, a factor which was
to lead to his re-appointment to the same key portfolio under Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh in 2004.
Yashwant Sinha 1998-2002
After
the General Elections in March 1998, Yashwant Sinha got the Finance
portfolio in the first ever BJP-led Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. He
presented the interim and final budgets for 1998-99. After the 13th
General Elections in 1999, he became the Finance Minister once again.
He had presented four annual budgets - from 1999-2000 to 2002-2003.
Yashwant Sinha presented the budget for 1999-2000 in the forenoon.
Earlier, the budgets used to be presented at five in the evening as a
pre-independence custom introduced by British establishment. While
Manmohan Singh concentrated on making imports flexible, Sinha paid
great attention to rationalization of excise and reduced the slabs from
11 to one.
Jaswant Singh 2002-2004
In
July 2002 he became Finance Minister again, switching posts with
Yashwant Sinha. He served as Finance Minister until the defeat of the
Vajpayee government in May 2004 and was instrumental in defining and pushing through the market-friendly reforms of the government.
P Chidambaram:
Incumbent Chidambaram became Minister of Finance again in the congress
party-led United Progressive Alliance government on May 24, 2004. He is
hard-working and widely believed to be honest.