The minister of finance (Vitta Mantrī ) (or simply, the finance minister, short form FM) is the head of the
Ministry of Finance of the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
. One of the senior most offices of the
Union Cabinet, the finance minister is responsible for the
fiscal policy
In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection ( taxes or tax cuts) and expenditure to influence a country's economy. The use of government revenue expenditures to influence macroeconomic variab ...
of the government. A key duty of the finance minister is to present the annual
Union Budget in
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
, detailing the government's plan for taxation and spending in the coming
financial year
A fiscal year (also known as a financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. La ...
. Through the budget, the finance minister also outlines allocations to all the ministries and departments. The minister is assisted by the minister of state for finance and the junior deputy minister of finance.
There have been a number of ministers of finance that went on to become the
prime minister
A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
;
Morarji Desai,
Charan Singh,
Vishwanath Pratap Singh and
Manmohan Singh and also to serve as the
president;
R.Venkataraman and
Pranab Mukherjee. Several prime ministers have also gone on to hold the position of minister of finance.
The current finance minister of India is
Nirmala Sitharaman. Of all finance ministers,
Pranab Mukherjee and
Nirmala Sitharaman had served as both cabinet ministers and ministers of state for finance
Cabinet ministers
Ministers of state
Deputy ministers
References
External links
Finance Ministry, Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Finance (India) Minister
Union ministers of India
Lists of government ministers of India