Budget 2026: Inside The Govt's Step By Step Process Of Preparing Union Budget
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India’s Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is set to present the Union Budget this week on February 1st, 11 am. This will be her ninth consecutive Budget presentation, which brings her closer to former Finance Minister Morarji Desai’s record of presenting the most number of Budgets ever (10).
While it’s pretty obvious for Budget expectations to grab the headlines, have you ever wondered how the Budget is actually prepared? How long is the process? And who all are involved in Budget preparation?
Let’s unfold the key steps involved in preparing the Union Budget every year.
How The Union Budget Is Prepared?
The process of preparing the Union Budget process mainly consists of two types of activities- First, the administrative process, wherein the budget along with documents are prepared in consultation with various stakeholders. Second, the legislative process wherein the Budget is passed by Parliament after discussion.
Let’s bring to you a simplified list of the key steps involved in the process of Budget preparation and presentation:
The commencement of the Budget process takes place with the issue of ‘Budget Circular’, usually around the month of September each year. For the upcoming Budget 2026, the circular was released in the last week of August.
This circular is issued with the purpose of providing guidance to various ministries/ departments in framing their revised estimates for the current financial year and the budget estimates for the upcoming financial year.
The circular details out the instructions on the preparation of estimates of various types of receipts and expenditure. It also includes the formats and statements in which such estimates are required to be furnished.
Upon preparation of such estimates, the ministries/departments need to submit their budget proposals in the form of a Provisional SBE (Statement of Budget Estimates) in the hard copy format to the respective sections in the Budget Division.
It is then the Budget Division of the Finance Ministry which prepares briefs for the pre-Budget meetings, wherein detailed discussions are held on various items of expenditure on the basis of trends of expenditure, unspent balance, status of approval of the schemes/projects etc.
The requirements of funds for all categories of expenditure along with receipts of the departments are discussed during such pre-Budget meetings chaired by the Expenditure Secretary.
Such meetings are followed by various steps in October to January period, like processing of actual figures by the Budget division, communicating them to the ministries/departments, Finance Minister’s meetings with Stake Holder/ Groups/Chambers of Commerce/ Associations, etc, receipts of SBEs (Final) from ministries, Proposals and Finalization of Draft for Finance Bill, etc.
- Then in the last week of January, the finalization of the Finance Minister’s Budget Speech is done, followed by obtaining approval of the Prime Minister regarding the ‘Summary for the President’ and then the President’s recommendations for the Budget under Articles 112, 115 & 117 (Part V) of the Constitution, which define key financial procedures in the Parliament.
Finally on the morning of February 1st, the Finance Minister briefs the Cabinet of ministers on the Budget outline (through a summary) and also briefs them on the Finance Bill.
Immediately after presenting the briefing, the Budget is presented in the Lok Sabha along with the Finance Minister giving his/her speech.
After the Budget is presented, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (in consultation with the Ministry of Finance) fixes the dates for general discussions on the Budget, in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha.
The scope of discussion at this stage is confined to general examination of the Budget, policy on taxation as expressed in the Budget Speech of the Finance Minister and general schemes and structures etc. At the end of the discussions, the Finance Minister holds the right to reply to the queries.
As far as the Finance Bill is concerned, the consideration and passing of the Finance Bill in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha is usually done by 3rd or 4th week of March after the President’s recommendation for amendments to the Finance Bill are taken.
For even deeper details of the Budget preparation, you can read this Budget Manual - https://dea.gov.in/files/budget_division_documents/BUDGET_MANUAL_FINAL_15_11_22.pdf
Does the public have any say in the Budget making process?
Given that the Budget affects us all in some way or the other, this question is bound to come in anyone’s mind. And the answer is yes.
From the year 2015, the Indian government started inviting public suggestions “to Infuse more transparency into Budget making exercise and to have people as partners to the process of Budget making.” Even for the upcoming Budget 2026, the Finance Ministry had invited suggestions from the period December 17th 2025- January 16th 2026.
Now that you have a fair idea about the Budget process, let us bring to you the list of India’s Finance Ministers who have presented the Budget till date.
List of India’s Finance Ministers who have presented Budget
Here’s the list of all of India’s Finance Ministers in the post independence era:
Name of Finance Minister | Tenure |
Sh. R.K. Shanmukham Chetty | 15.08.1947 – 17.08.1948 |
Sh. Jawahar Lal Nehru | 17.08.1948 – 22.09.1948 |
Dr. John Mathai | 22.09.1948 – 01.06.1950 |
Sh. C.D. Deshmukh | 01.06.1950 – 24.07.1956 |
Sh. Jawahar Lal Nehru | 24.07.1956 – 30.08.1956 |
Sh. T.T. Krishnamachari | 30.08.1956 – 14.02.1958 |
Sh. Jawahar Lal Nehru | 14.02.1958 – 22.03.1958 |
Sh. Morarji Desai | 22.03.1958 – 31.08.1963 |
Sh. T.T. Krishnamachari | 31.08.1963 – 31.12.1965 |
Sh. Sachindra Chaudhary | 01.01.1966 – 12.03.1967 |
Sh. Morarji Desai | 13.03.1967 – 16.07.1969 |
Smt. Indira Gandhi | 16.07.1969 – 27.06.1970 |
Sh. Y.B. Chavan | 27.06.1970 – 10.10.1974 |
Sh. C. Subramaniam | 10.10.1974 – 24.03.1977 |
Sh. Morarji Desai | 24.03.1977 – 26.03.1977 |
Sh. H.M. Patel | 26.03.1977 – 24.01.1979 |
Chowdhary Charan Singh | 24.01.1979 – 16.07.1979 |
Sh. Morarji Desai | 16.07.1979 – 28.07.1979 |
Sh. H.N. Bahuguna | 28.07.1979 – 19.10.1979 |
Sh. Chowdhary Charan Singh | 19.10.1979 – 14.01.1980 |
Sh. R. Venkataraman | 14.01.1980 – 15.01.1982 |
Sh. Pranab Kumar Mukherjee | 15.01.1982 – 31.12.1984 |
Sh. Vishwanath Pratap Singh | 31.12.1984 – 24.01.1987 |
Sh. Rajiv Gandhi | 24.01.1987 – 25.05.1987 |
Sh. N.D. Tiwari | 25.05.1987 – 25.06.1988 |
Sh. S.B. Chavan | 25.06.1988 – 02.12.1989 |
Prof. Madhu Dandavate | 06.12.1989 – 10.11.1990 |
Sh. Chandra Shekhar | 10.11.1990 – 21.11.1990 |
Sh. Yashwant Sinha | 21.11.1990 – 21.06.1991 |
Sh. Manmohan Singh | 21.06.1991 – 16.06.1996 |
Sh. Jaswant Singh | 16.05.1996 – 01.06.1996 |
Sh. P. Chidambaram | 01.06.1996 – 21.04.1997 |
Sh. I.K. Gujral | 21.04.1997 – 01.05.1997 |
Sh. P. Chidambaram | 01.05.1997 – 19.03.1998 |
Sh. Yashwant Sinha | 19.03.1998 – 13.10.1999 |
Sh. Yashwant Sinha | 13.10.1999 – 01.07.2002 |
Sh. Jaswant Singh | 01.07.2002 – 22.05.2004 |
Sh. P. Chidambaram | 22.05.2004 – 30.11.2008 |
Dr. Manmohan Singh | 30.11.2008 – 24.01.2009 |
Sh. Pranab Mukherjee | 24.01.2009 – 26.06.2012 |
Dr. Manmohan Singh | 26.06.2012 – 31.07.2012 |
Sh. P. Chidambaram | 31.07.2012 – 26.05.2014 |
Sh. Arun Jaitley | 26.05.2014 – 14.05.2018 |
Sh. Piyush Goyal | 14.05.2018 – 22.08.2018 |
Sh. Arun Jaitley | 23.08.2018 – 23.01.2019 |
Sh. Piyush Goyal | 23.01.2019 – 15.02.2019 |
Sh. Arun Jaitley | 16.02.2019 – 30.05.2019 |
Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman | 31.05.2019 – Present |
