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Presented by John Mathai, the finance minister in the Congress government, this budget laid down the road map to the creation of the Planning Commission. The Planning Commission assesses all resources of the country and plans the most effective use of these resources.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the first chairman of the Planning Commission.

Morarji Ranchhodji Desai's budget ended the need for excise department officials to step and assess each goods leaving the factory gate. It introduced the system of self-assessment that all big and small manufacturers could follow.

In this budget, Desai withdrew the "spouse allowance" where both a husband and wife were income tax payers, as he said in his budget speech: "it would be improper for any outsider to decide as to who is dependent on whom… to eliminate this unintended strain on the relationship of marriage".

Desai was also the only Union Minister to have presented 10 budgets.

Yashwantrao B. Chavan presented this budget on February 28, 1973. During this year, the budget deficit was as high as Rs 550 crores. The Black Budget provided Rs 56 crore for the nationalisation of the general insurance companies, Indian Copper Corp and coal mines.

This was to allow uninterrupted supply of coal in line with the growing demand for coal in industries like power, cement and steel.

VP Singh, minister of finance in the Congress government presented the budget of February 28, 1986. This budget oversaw the beginning of the dismantling of the license raj. This budget was also the modest beginning at major indirect tax reforms that would lead to the change in GST regime.

Highly profitable companies that were legally managing to avoid paying income tax were brought into the tax net with this budget. It became a major source of revenue for the government thereafter.

Manmohan Singh, the Finance Minister in the Narasimha Rao government, presented this one on July 24, 1991. This budget overhauled the import-export policy. It also slashed the import licensing and promoted exports at optimal import compression. This exposed the Indian industry to global competition.

Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha presented this budget on February 29, 2000 with an intention to promote India as a major software development hub. The introduction of software export led to an exceptional growth in the Indian IT industry.