When FM Nirmala Sitharaman's Slip Of Tongue In Budget 2023 Speech Left Parliament In Splits; WATCH

Budget 2024: With only two days remaining before Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents the last budget of the ruling NDA government, here's a quick recap of the video that went viral from her Budget 2023 speech. This video was widely shared on social media and drew lot of laughs within and outside the parliament.

Here's what happened.

During the Union Budget presentation of 2023, FM Nirmala Sitharaman who was presenting the budget to the parliament made a minor pronunciation error, which evoked a round of laughter from the MPs. While FM Sitharaman was presenting the Union Budget, talking about how the government is prioritising dealing with old polluting vehicles, she mispronounced pollution as ‘political’.

“Replacing old political…sorry old pollution vehicles will be a priority…," Sitharaman said, which led to a round of laughs.

In a meeting of serious discussions, the moment presented a brief respite of comedy, unifying everyone present, even if it was for a short period of time. Even the opposition leaders seemed to find amusement in her error, thumping tables and cheering her on. She then went on to correct herself, saying: "Replacing old polluting vehicles is an important part of greening our economy".

As per the Union Budget announcement, the government introduced a scrappage policy for old and unsafe vehicles during the Union Budget 2021. Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Vehicle Scrappage Policy while virtually addressing the Gujarat Investor Summit in August 2021. The vehicle scrappage policy was brought into force starting April 1, 2023 for Heavy Commercial Vehicles (HCVs). For other commercial vehicles and private vehicles, the scrappage policy will be effective from June 1 2024.