Union Budgets are often treated as routine fiscal announcements, yet in recent four decades they have quietly reshaped taxation, regulation and economic policy. Why did finance ministers repeatedly use the Budget to dismantle the licence raj, build market institutions and enforce fiscal rules—and why does that legacy still shape India’s political economy today? The answers lie in how the Budget became a tool of structural reform. Union Budgets are often treated as routine fiscal announcements, yet in recent four decades they have quietly reshaped taxation, regulation and economic policy. Why did finance ministers repeatedly use the Budget to dismantle the licence raj, build market institutions and enforce fiscal rules—and why does that legacy still shape India’s political economy today? The answers lie in how the Budget became a tool of structural reform.
