Jaitley first finance minister to take five-minute break during budget speech presentation

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took a five-minute break while presenting his maiden General Budget for the year 2014-15 here on Thursday.

The Lok Sabha was adjourned after Jaitley asked Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to grant him a break as his back was hurting. This is the first time a finance minister has stopped in the midst of delivering a budget speech.

Jaitley began presenting the budget proposals for fiscal 2014-15 with the permission of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan at 11 a.m.

He began the presentation by saying that he was doing so with the full knowledge that the people of India are passing through some tough economic times, and that the government is duty-bound to address those concerns brought on by a high fiscal deficit and a high level of subsidies.

He said that it would be the government's endeavour to take some bold intiatives and steps to alleviate some of the economic problems faced by the nation at this point of time.