The National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), had its first full term at the Centre from 1998 to 2004, with Atal Bihari Vajpayee as the prime minister. This period saw two BJP leaders serving as the Union finance minister — Yashwant Sinha from 1998 to 2002 and Jaswant Singh from 2002-2004. During Sinha’s term, while the nation was going through some troubled times on the external front — from the US sanctions after the 1998 nuclear tests to the Kargil war with Pakistan and the infamous Kandahar hijacking case — Sinha helped stabilise the country’s economy. The most interesting change that made was a change in time of the Budget presentation to mornings. Prior to 1998, the Budget was presented in the evening session of Parliament. In his tenure, Sinha rationalised the excise rates as well. In 2002, Jaswant Singh took over as the finance minister and Yashwant Sinha became the external affairs minister. Singh had also been the finance minister in 1996, when the Vajpayee government had fallen in just 15 days. Singh laid the foundation for State Value Added Tax (VAT) and slashed custom duties. In 2014, when the NDA government returned to power with Narendra Modi as PM, party veteran Arun Jaitley was made the finance minister. Jaitley gave the nation the Goods and Services Tax, the concept for which had been hanging fire for over 15 years. After GST was enforced, many tax slab revisions were also manoeuvred and Jaitley also introduced the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC). The IBC helped the insolvency process of several companies that were going down. When Jaitley's health deteriorated, Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal was made an interim finance minister. Goyal presented the full Budget for the 2018-19 and the Interim Budget for 2019-20. The most crucial among Goyal’s Budget announcements was a tax concession to the lowest bracket of the salaried class. He also announced a scheme for income transfer to farmers. Now, with the Modi government back in power at the Centre for a second time, Nirmala Sitharaman has been given charge of the finance ministry — she is the first woman in India to get finance as primary portfolio. As Sitharaman, the fifth NDA finance minister, presents her first Budget on July 5, the measures that she announces will be keenly watched. Join us : http://www.facebook.com/bsindia http://twitter.com/bsindia https://plus.google.com/105513640026823338822 Our Apps: http://www.business-standard.com/android