One minute read. Written by IKUN team

You must have heard or read that today was Budget day. What that means is that today India’s Budget was presented in the parliament. The full name is the Union Budget, and is actually a financial plan that a country makes, usually for one year – it tells us how much money we have in our country and what we will spend it on in the coming year.

The government gets money from the tax that the citizens pay (we pay many taxes, from the things we buy to the money we earn). And then the government decides how much it will spend on what – like education, healthcare, transport, agriculture etc.

Who prepares the budget?

It is made by the Ministry of Finance mainly. But, many other ministries are also asked for their inputs, because the finance ministry needs to understand from other departments about their expenditures and revenues (that is the income it gets). After this the ministry makes a document keeping in mind all the expenditures etc and how much money should be spent on what.

Think about this like your house. If you father or mother have a certain amount of money for spending on all that is needed to run the house – they will first look at the expenditure – like your school fee, money needed for food, clothing, travelling etc- and then decide how much should be spent on what so that the money is enough for all expenditures.

Who presents the budget?

The Finance Minister presents the budget. Last year and this year it was presented by Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s finance Minister. Her speech was long – it lasted around 2 hours 43 minutes.

After a budget some things get more expensive and some get cheaper – depending on how the taxes are adjusted – meaning if the government puts some taxes on a certain product, then making it becomes more expensive and so it becomes more expensive to buy.

Here are some things that have gone up after this year’s budget: Footwear, Furniture, Kitchenware, Steel, Copper, Raw sugar, Some spare parts for cars, to name a few things.