SPEECH of R.K. SHANMUKHAM CHETTY, Minister of Finance introducing independent India's first Budget for the year 1947-48.

I rise to present the first Budget of a free and independent India. This occasion may well be considered an historic one and I count it a rare privilege that it has fallen to me to be the Finance Minister to present this Budget. While I am conscious of the honour that is implied in this position, I am even more conscious of the responsibilities that face the custodian of the finances of India at this critical juncture. I have no doubt that in the discharge of my responsibilities I may count on the sympathetic and wholehearted co-operation of every Hon’ble Member in this House.

2. It is not necessary to dwell at any length on the political developments which have led to the momentous changes that have taken place since the Budget for the current year was presented to the Legislative Assembly last February. The partition of the country has cut across its economic and cultural unity and the growth of centuries of common life to which all the communities have contributed. The long-term effects of the division of the country still remain to be assessed and we are too near the events to take a dispassionate view. When the ashes of controversy have died down, it will be for the future historian to judge the wisdom of the step and its consequences on the destiny of one fifth of the human race. Whatever might be the immediate political justification of partition, its economic consequences must be fully appreciated if the two Dominions are to safeguard the interests of the ordinary man in both the new States. Regions which have functioned for centuries on a complementary basis have been suddenly cut asunder. To have had as a single economic unit a subcontinent peopled by a fifth of the human race meant by itself a great advantage for the teeming millions of its population an advantage not fully realised, and perhaps not properly utilized while the unity was a fact. While it may be a comparatively easy matter to make the necessary political adjustments resulting from partition, it would require time, patience, goodwill and mutual understanding to effect the adjustments necessitated by the economic consequences of partition. Economically India and Pakistan have each points of advantages and disadvantages. In general, it may be said that, while India is much the stronger at present in industrial production and mineral resources, Pakistan has some advantage in agricultural resources, especially foodstuffs. But the complementary character of their economies is even deeper than is indicated by this generalisation. The compelling forces of economic necessity must create a friendly and cooperative spirit between the two Dominions and I trust that, when the present passions subside and normal conditions of life return, our people will work together to secure that, notwithstanding the political division, the economic life of the common man is not injured. So far as we are concerned, the Indian Union with its population of nearly 300 millions will be the second largest country in the world next to China.

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1947 : Sir Ramasamy Chetty Kandasamy Shanmukham Chetty, The first finance minister of independent India , broadcasting on All India Radio after the First Budget of India.

Source: Traderji.com